164 WASTE-LAND WANDERINGS. 



broad, may be only from a half inch to an inch thick. 



The wood is of a dark-brown color, and quite brittle 



When exposed to the air and dried, it cracks across or 

 splits up into small fragments. Lumps of iron pyrites 

 are found in the larger pieces, and it is very common to 

 find the smaller sticks surrounded by knots and rings of 

 the same substance. Some of the trees are quite large, 

 two or three feet in diameter." There has been discov- 

 ered, in one instance, " the trunk of a tree that was four 

 feet in diameter," which as the clay was removed proved 

 to be ninety- three feet in length, and ten inches in diam- 

 eter at the top. Dr. Cook further states, that " the wood 

 has not been examined microscopically; but from the 

 leaves found, from the bark, and from the rings of an- 

 nual growth, the evidence is conclusive that the age of 

 broad-leaved plants was then begun." Dr. Cook makes 

 no mention of the occurrence of amber in this clay, but 

 refers to it as a " mineral . . . found irregularly distrib- 

 uted in all parts of the marl region ;" and adds, " from 

 its resemblance to resin it naturally attracts the attention 

 of workmen, and becomes the subject of their experi- 

 ments, and is burned up. Specimens have been seen 

 from marl-pits in every county of the region, but there 

 is no certainty of finding other specimens in the same 

 localities. Pieces enough to have filled a barrel are said 

 to have been taken from one marl-pit at Shark River 

 about twelve years ago ; but since that, in looking over 

 many hundred tons of marl there, not a fragment was 

 found." 



It occurs in the clay near here, associated with the 

 fossil-wood, and as little pebbles, in the bed of the creek. 



