IV] CONDITIONS OF FOSSILISATION. 83 



Before discussing a few more examples of fossils illustrating 

 different methods of fossilisation, it may not be out of place to 

 quote a few extracts from travellers' narratives which enable us 

 to realise more readily the circumstances and conditions under 

 which plant remains have been preserved in the Earth's crust. 



In an account of a journey down the Eawas river in 

 Sumatra, Forbes thus describes the flooded country: — 



" The whole surface of the water was covered, absolutely in a close 

 sheet, with petals, fruits and leaves, of innumerable species. In placid 

 corners sometimes I noted a collected mass nearly half a foot deep, among 

 which, on examination, I could scarcely find a leaf that was perfect, or 

 that remained attached to its rightful neighbour, so that were they to 

 become imbedded in some soft muddy spot, and in after ages to reappear 

 in a fossil form they would afford a few difficult puzzles to the palaeonto- 

 logist, both to separate and to put together i." 



An interesting example of the mixture of plants and animals 

 in sedimentary deposits is described by Hooker in his Hima- 

 layan Journals : — 



" To the geologist the Jheels and Sunderbunds are a most instructive 

 region, as whatever may be the mean elevation of their waters, a 

 permanent depression of ten to fifteen feet would submerge an immense 

 tract, which the Ganges, Burrampooter, and Soormah would soon cover 

 with beds of silt and sand. 



"There would be extremely few shells in the beds thus formed, the 

 southern and northern divisions of which would present two very difierent 

 floras and faunas, and would in all probability be referred by future 

 geologists to widely different epochs. To the north, beds of peat would 

 be formed by grasses, and in other parts temperate and tropical forms of 

 plants and animals would be preserved in such equally balanced pro- 

 portions as to confound the palaeontologist ; with the bones of the 

 long-snouted alligator, Gangetic porpoise, Indian cow, bufialo, rhinoceros, 

 elephant, tiger, deer, bear, and a host of other animals, he would meet 

 with acorns of sevpral species of oak, pine-cones and magnolia fruits, rose 

 seeds, and Cyoas nuts, with palm nuts, screw-pines, and other tropical 

 productions^." 



In another place the same author writes : 



" On the 12th of January, 1848, the Moozuffer was steaming amongst the 



low, swampy islands of the Sunderbunds Every now and then the 



paddles of the steamer tossed up the large fruits of Nipa frutioans, 



1 Forbes, H. 0. (85), p. 254. ^ Hooker, J. D. (91), p. 477. 



