lxxviii PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1896,. 



E. A. Wtjnsch was one of the original members of the Glasgow 

 Geological Society, which was founded in 1858, and served the 

 office of Yice-President several times from 1858 to 1881, when he 

 left Glasgow to reside at Carharrack, Scorrier, Cornwall. There 

 he died on November 19th, 1895, aged 73 years. He was elected a 

 Fellow of the Geological Society in 1875. 



The most important service which he rendered to geological 

 science was his discovery in 1865 of erect trees buried in volcanic 

 ash in Arran. These trees were discovered in the Lower Car- 

 boniferous strata of the north-eastern part of Arran, in the sea-cliff,, 

 about 5 miles north of Corrie, near the village of Laggan. Here 

 strata of volcanic ash occur, forming a solid rock cemented by 

 carbonate of lime and enveloping trunks of trees, determined by 

 Mr. Binney to belong to the genera Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. 

 Sir Charles Lyell mentions that he visited the spot in company 

 with Mr. Wiinsch in 1870, and saw that the trees with their roots r 

 of which about fourteen had been observed, occur at two distinct 

 levels in volcanic tuffs, parallel to each other, and inclined at an 

 angle of about 40°, having between them beds of shale and coaly 

 matter 7 feet thick. It is evident that the trees were overwhelmed 

 by a shower of ashes from some neighbouring volcanic vent, just 

 as Pompeii was buried by matter ejected from Vesuvius. 1 



Mr. Wiinsch writes 2 :— ' Trunks of trees 18 to 24 inches in 

 diameter, and 2 to 3 feet in height, standing erect upon the 

 original beds of thin coal and shale upon which they grew, and 

 covered by layers of ash 2 to 3 feet in thickness, are found 

 regularly dispersed over the area : while the ash overlying them, 

 in which they are embedded, contains numerous branches, from 4 

 inches in diameter down to the minutest dimensions, some of the 

 impressions displaying an almost feathery foliage, as though sud- 

 denly covered up before the vegetation had had time to decay, or 

 become waterworn. The larger branches remain perfectly round, 

 and show the pith in an admirable state of preservation ; and the 

 cellular tissue, filled up with mineral matter, is plainly visible to 

 the naked eye.' 



His last paper was ' On a Logan- stone in the course of forma- 

 tion at St. Michael's Mount/ Trans. Roy. Geol. Soc. Cornw. 1895 r 

 pp. 605 & 669. 



1 Lyell's ' Student's Elements,' 4th ed. 1885, pp. 496-497. 



2 Geol. Mag. 1865, pp. 474-475 ; ibid. 1867, pp. 551-552. 



