386 



Geological Society, 



the receipts have exceeded the expenditure." And this is even 

 after having defrayed the cost of printing Transactions, which have 

 not yet had time to make any return. £1020. 9s. has been raised 

 by subscription to effect alterations and improvements in the Mu- 

 seum, which have been completed, and now display to advantage a 

 collection of very considerable value and extent. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



Fossil Trees. — The President's Address contains the following ac- 

 count of a communication of Mr. Hawkshaw, read June 5, 1839. 



We have received an interesting communication from Mr. Hawk- 

 shaw respecting a remarkable disclosure made in the Bolton Railway, 

 six miles north of Manchester, of five fossil trees in a position vertical 

 to the plane of the strata in which they stand. The roots are im- 

 bedded in a soft argillaceous shale immediately under a thin bed 

 of coal. Near the base of one tree, and beneath the coal, more than 

 a bushel of hard clay nodules was found, each inclosing a cone of 

 Lepidostrobus variabilis. The bark of the trees was converted to 

 coal, from one quarter to three quarters of an inch thick ; the sub- 

 stance which has replaced the interior of the trees is shale ; the cir- 

 cumference of the largest of them is \5\ feet at the base, 7^ at. the 

 top, and its height 1 1 feet. One tree has spreading roots, four feet 

 in circumference, solid and strong. By the care of Mr. Hawkshaw 

 these trees have been preserved, and a covering is erected over 

 them. The attendant phenomena seem to show that they grew 

 upon the strata that lie immediately beneath their roots*. 



Feb. 26. — A paper was first read, entitled " Further observations 

 on the Fossil Trees found on the Manchester and Bolton railway;" 

 by John Hawkshaw, Esq., F.G.S. 



Since Mr. Hawkshaw's former communication, another fossil 

 tree has been found on the opposite side of the railway. It is about 

 three feet in height, and three feet in circumference, and stands on 

 the same thin stratum of coal as those first discovered, and perpen- 

 dicularly to the surface of the bed. Mr. Hawkshaw is, therefore, 

 strengthened in his belief, that the trees grew in the position in 

 which they are found. 



After this notice of the recent discovery, he proceeds to describe 

 the effects produced in hot and moist climates on felled or pro- 

 strated solid dicotyledonous trees. The tropical forests with which 

 he is acquainted from personal examination, are situated in Vene- 

 zuela on the shore of the Carribean sea, and between the 8th and 

 10th degrees of north latitude, and the 65 th and 70th of west longi- 

 tude. In these forests a few months are sufficient to destroy the 

 interior of the largest tree, little more being left than an outer shell, 

 consisting chiefly of the bark. Mr. Hawkshaw noticed this pecu- 

 liarity more frequently in dicotyledonous trees, having a proper bark, 



See the abstract of this paper in L. & E. Phil. Mag. vol. xv. p. 539- 



