178 Mr. Hawkshaw on Fossil Trees found 



cotyledons, excluding of course the bamboos, canes, etc., which are always hollow. 

 For instance, in the Palm tribe, which near the coast is frequently interspersed 

 with forest trees, I do not remember to have met with an instance. The rind or 

 outer covering of this magnificent class of plants is of considerable thickness, and 

 has generally a density and a structure which seem to defy decay ; while the inte- 

 rior or pithy part possesses antiseptic qualities whereby it is enabled to resist decom- 

 position much longer than the interior or proper wood of many of the tropical 

 forest trees growing in low and moist situations. 



Sometimes the portion remaining in the ground of these dicotyledonous trees, 

 including the strong roots and a short piece of the stem, presented very much the 

 appearance of the founder's mould when he has withdrawn the pattern from the 

 sand, before the metal is run in to form the cast. By this kind of decay a cavity 

 was left, from which might have been taken a fac simile of the lower portion of 

 the tree, with the strong, diverging roots ; and in nearly all cases, this cavity 

 was lined with the whole or with remnants of the bark. Deceived by their out- 

 ward appearance, I have stepped upon similar trees which were prostrated on the 

 ground, and which, unable to resist the pressure, gave way beneath my feet, and 

 allowed me to sink into what was apparently a massive tree, but which in reality 

 was only a hollow cylinder. 



So often do these decayed stems occur in the low and hot forests of the coast 

 of South America, that dangerous accidents frequently happen in consequence. 

 Many of the rude and temporary bridges which had been thrown over narrow 

 streams and ravines by Englishmen, who wanted the leisure or the knowledge to 

 select a proper material, have often suddenly given way, though they had been 

 erected perhaps only twelve months. Formed of trunks of trees, the outward 

 appearance afforded no sign of the inward decay ; and the first notice the unwary 

 traveller had of the instability of the bridge, was, his being precipitated into the 

 stream below. The bark of these trees had changed but little, while of the interior 

 nothing was left except dust and a few decayed remnants, which crumbled beneath 

 the lightest touch. 



The forests in which I have observed these appearances are in Venezuela, on the 

 shore of the Carribean Sea, between the eighth and tenth degrees of north latitude, 

 and the sixty-fifth and seventieth degrees of west longitude. The only analogous 

 appearances we have in this country, are produced by the dry-rot, which sometimes 

 destroys the interior of timber with great rapidity, leaving an exterior crust ; but 

 these appearances are neither so frequent nor so striking. In the tropical forest a 

 few months suffices to destroy the interior of the largest tree, by a process which, 

 instead of being of a vegetative nature, as the dry-rot is in this country, appeared 

 to be of a fermentative character commenced in the juices of the tree, and which 



