396 NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS. 



of strata, very similar to those already described, with occasional thin seams of 

 coal, and with vertical trees at five or six different levels. 



I observed in all at least seventeen of these upright trunks, but in no instance 

 did I see any one of them intersecting a layer of coal, however thin, nor did I 

 find any one of them terminating downwards in sandstone, but always in coal 

 or shale. Their usual height was from 6 to 8 feet, but one which was more 

 than 100 feet above the beach, and which I could not approach to measure, 

 seemed to be 25 feet high, and 4 feet in diameter, with a considerable bulge at 

 the base. They all appear to be of one species, the rugosities on the surface 

 producing the effect of a rudely-fluted column, and they were placed very ac- 

 curately at right angles to the planes of stratification. I found numerous 

 flattened trunks of large Sigillariaa with their flutings and leaf-scars in the shales, 

 but none of them resembled the erect trees with their irregularly furrowed 

 exterior. 



Stigmariae are abundant in the argillaceous sandstones of these coal-measures, 

 often with their leaves attached, and spreading regularly in all directions from 

 the stem. It commonly happens here, as in Europe, that, when this plant 

 occurs in sandstone, none of its leaf-like processes (or rootlets ?) are attached, 

 but I saw one remarkable exception in strata of micaceous sandstone, in which 

 the stem was about 4 inches thick, and traversed obliquely several layers of 

 fine white micaceous sandstone 2 feet in vertical thickness. 



I have stated that I counted seventeen upright trees in the strata of the South 

 Joggins, and I was assured by Dr. Gesner, and by residents at Minudie, that 

 other and different individuals were exposed a few years ago ; the action of the 

 tides of the Bay of Fundi being so destructive as continually to undermine and 

 sweep away the whole face of the cliffs, so that a new crop of fossils is laid open 

 to view every three or four years. I saw the erect trees at more than ten 

 distinct levels, one above the other ; they extend over a space from two or three 

 miles from north to south, and more than twice that distance from east to west, 

 as I am informed by Dr. Gesner, who has explored the banks of streams inter- 

 secting this coal-field. 



Many curious conclusions may be deduced from the facts above enumerated. 



1st. The erect position of the trees, and their perpendicularity to the planes 

 of stratification, imply that a thickness of several thousand feet of strata, now 

 uniformly inclined at an angle of 24°, were deposited originally in a horizontal 

 position. But for the existence of the upright trees it might have been con- 

 jectured, that the beds of sand and mud had been thrown down at first on a 

 sloping bank, as sometimes happens in the case of gravel and coarse sand. 

 But, if we are compelled to assume the original horizontality of beds 2500 feet 

 thick, through which the erect trees are dispersed, we can hardly avoid ex- 

 tending the same inference to the greater part of the strata above and below 

 them. It by no means follows that a sea four or five miles deep was filled up 

 with sand and sediment. On the contrary, repeated subsidences, such as are 

 required to explain the successive submergence of so many forests which grew 

 one above the other, may have enabled this enormous accumulation of strata to 

 have taken place in a sea of moderate depth. 



Secondly. The evidence of the growth of more than ten forests of fossil 

 trees superimposed one upon the other prepares us to admit more willingly the 

 opinion, that the Stigmaria with its root-like processes was really the root of a 

 terrestrial plant fossilised in situ. Yet, if we embrace this opinion, it follows 

 that all the innumerable underclays with Stigmaria in North America and 

 Europe, are indications of an equal number of soils, whether of dry land or 

 freshwater marshes, which supported a growth of timber, and were then sub- 

 merged. If this be true, and the conclusion seems inevitable, the phenomenon 

 of the upright trees in Nova Scotia, marvellous as it may be, shrinks into insig- 

 nificance by comparison. 



At the same time, it is quite intelligible, that we should find hundreds of 

 cases where the soil has remained with the roots fixed in their original matrix 

 for one instance where the trunk has continued to stand erect after submergence. 

 Many favourable circumstances must concur, to allow of such an exception to 



