§ 10. UPRIGHT TREES AT WOLVERHAMPTON. 673 



In the Newcastle coal-field, a stratum of sandstone occurs 

 150 yards below the surface, in which were observed many 

 erect stems of trees, from two to eight feet in circumference, 

 having their roots in a thin layer of coal. 



10. Upright Trees at Wolverhampton and St. 

 Etienne. — "In a colliery near Wolverhampton the bottom 

 coal rises to view, and where the surface has been cleared of 

 the alluvial covering, it presents the appearance of a moor 

 on which a full-grown fir-wood had been cut down a few 

 months before, and only left the stumps behind. Stump 

 rises beside stump, to the number of seventy-three in all : 

 the thickly clinging roots strike out on every side into what 

 seems once to have been vegetable mould, but now 

 exists as an indurated brownish-coloured shale. Many 

 trunks, sorely flattened, lie recumbent on the coal ; several 

 are full thirty feet in length, while some of the larger 

 stumps measure rather more than two feet in diameter. 

 There lie, thick around, Stigmariae, Lepidodendra, Calam- 

 ites, and fragments of Ulodendrce ; and yet with all the 

 assistance which these lent, the seam of coal formed by this 

 ancient forest does not exceed five inches in thickness. Not 

 a few of the stumps in this area are evidently waterworn. 

 The prostrate forest had been submerged, and mollusks lived 

 and fishes swam over it. This upper forest is underlaid by 

 a second, and even a third : we find three full-grown forests 

 closely packed up in a depth of not more than twelve feet."* 



A coal-pit at Treuille, near St. Etienne, in France, t 

 described by M. Alexandre Brongniart, contains many 

 stems of Calamites and other trees in an erect position, and 

 this fact is generally considered as an indisputable proof 

 that the coal was produced by the submergence of a forest 

 that once grew on the spot : but as many of these stems are 

 inclined at various angles, and their roots implanted in 



* First Impressions of England and its People, by Hugh Miller 

 p. 223. t In the department of the Loire. 



