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XVI. — Further Observations on the Fossil Trees found on the Manchester and 



Bolton Railway. 



By JOHN HAWKSHAW, Esq., F.G.S. 



[Read February 27th, 1840.] 



^INCE the reading of my first communication on this subject, another fossil tree, 

 about three feet in length and three feet in circumference, has been found on the 

 opposite side of the railway. It stands on the same thin stratum of coal as the 

 others, and, like them, it is perpendicular to this stratum. This additional fossil 

 tends greatly to confirm the view already taken, that the trees now stand on the 

 precise spot where they grew. If there be some difficulty in conceiving that one 

 detached and erratic tree could be placed and left quite perpendicular on the sur- 

 face of an ancient formation, there is vastly greater difficulty (in my mind almost an 

 insuperable one) in conceiving this condition to belong to six trees, all within a few 

 yards of each other. But even of the precise position in which they stand, no 

 written account can convey a conviction as to their being in situ, at all equal to 

 that which forces itself on the mind from a single glance at the fossils themselves ; 

 and for precisely the same reason, that a mere statement of five or six broken 

 stems of trees standing in the middle of a green field, would convey nothing like the 

 certainty of their having formerly grown there, that would be derived from one 

 glance at the objects themselves. As far as I am aware, not one of the many geolo- 

 gists who have inspected these fossils has felt a moment's hesitation in considering 

 them to be now on the same spot where they grew. This point being as I conceive 

 settled, I will proceed to add a few particulars and observations which appear to 

 me to be applicable in some degree to these and similar fossils. 



In the tropical parts of South America, I have observed several instances of 

 trees which had been cut down or broken off" near the ground, becoming hollow 

 by the rapid decay of the wood ; little more being left than an outer shell, con- 

 sisting chiefly of the bark, which had resisted decay better than the wood. The 

 cases to which I refer, were of dicotyledonous trees, having a proper bark ; and 1 

 have noticed this peculiarity more frequently in trees of that class than in Mono- 



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