IN THE STRATA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS SERIES. 45 



Fig. 6. Represents a portion of a similar slice, in which the reticular 

 markings are more or less obliterated or distorted. The longitudinal sec- 

 tions parallel to the bark are similar to those of the Wideopen tree ; and as 

 I am unable to perceive any specific distinction, 1 cannot avoid referring 

 this fragment to the same species. 



FOSSIL TREE FOUND AT HIGH HEWORTH. 



A large fossil tree was found at High Heworth, near Gateshead, in 

 the county of Durham. It was met with in the grindstone bed, which is 

 the same stratum as that in which the great Wideopen tree already de- 

 scribed and figured occurred, and was described by Mr Winch in a letter 

 to the Geological Society, dated 7 th October 1817. The trunk was 28 or 

 30 feet long, compressed and broken, lying in the regular dip of the sand- 

 stone, declining south. Where small interstices occurred, crystals of quartz 

 were formed. It was otherwise fine-grained in texture, and in structure 

 somewhat lamellar, apparently from the fibre of the wood. The general 

 colour was pale brown, but parts of it were tinged black, probably by carbo- 

 naceous matter. The bark or outer part was converted into coal. 



Plate IX. Fig. 7, represents one of the most regular portions of a 

 transverse section, and exhibits an arrangement similar to Figs. 1. and 2. of 

 the same plate. 



Fig. 8. Represents another portion of the same, exhibiting the ordinary 

 appearance of the fossil, it being greatly distorted, and in some places in- 

 tersected by earthy and carbonaceous veins. This so much resembles Fig. 

 2, and the texture of the fossil generally is so like that of the Wideopen 

 tree, that the two might be supposed to belong to the same species. 



Plate X. Fig. 7, represents a portion of a transverse section more 

 highly magnified. 



Fig. 8. Represents part of a section parallel to the medullary rays. 

 The tissue of the plant generally, as has already been remarked, is much 

 distorted. In the Wideopen and Ushaw fossils above described, the elon- 



