CONSISTENCY OF GEOLOGY WITH SACRED HISTORY. 415 



exposed, each standing erect in the centre of a mound or dome of 

 earth, which had evidently accumulated around the base and roots of 

 the trees ; presenting an appearance as if the trees had been broken, 

 or torn off, at a short distance from the ground. Portions of trunks 

 and branches were seen, some lying on the surface, and others imbed- 

 ded in the dirt-bed ; many of these were nearly two feet in diameter, 

 and the united fragments of one tree measured upwards of thirty feet 

 in length. The silicified plants allied to the cycas are found in the in- 

 tervals between the trees ; and I dug up from the dirt-bed several that 

 were standing erect, evidently upon the very spot on which they grew, 

 and where they had remained undisturbed amidst all the revolutions 

 which had subsequently swept over the surface of the earth. ' The 

 dirt-bed extends through the north of the Isle of Portland, and traces 

 of it have been observed in the coves at the west end of Purbeck ; 

 and a stratum, with bituminous matter and silicified wood, occurs in 

 the cliffs of the Boulonnois, on the opposite coast of France, occupy- 

 ing the same relative situation with respect to the Purbeck and Port- 

 land formations. A similar bed has also been discovered in Bucking- 

 hamshire, and in the Vale of Wardour, proving that the presence of 

 this remarkable stratum is coextensive with the junction of the Port- 

 land and Purbeck strata, so far as they have hitherto been exam- 

 ined.'* 



Above the dirt-bed are thin layers of limestone, the total thickness 

 being about eight feet, into which the erect trunks extend, but no oth- 

 er traces of organic remains have been noticed in them. These lime- 

 stone beds are covered by the modern vegetable soil, which scarcely 

 exceeds in depth the ancient one above described ; and instead of giv- 

 ing support, like the latter, to a tropical forest, can barely maintain a 

 scanty vegetation, there being scarcely a tree or shrub on the whole 

 island.! 



Here, then, we have recorded in characters which cannot be mis- 

 taken the nature of the changes which took place in this part of the 

 globe, after the sea of the oolite had deposited the marine strata of 

 Portland. A portion of the bed of that sea was elevated above the 

 surface of the waters, and became clothed with a vegetation, which, 

 reasoning from the close resemblance of the fossil plants to the recent 

 Cycadece, must have enjoyed a climate of a much higher temperature 

 than is known in these latitudes at the present day. How long this 

 island, or continent, (for of its extent no correct estimate can be form- 

 ed,) remained above the level of the ocean, cannot be conjectured ; 

 but that it was dry land for a considerable period, is manifest from 



* Vide Geology of Hastings, p. 76. et scq. 



tThe appearance of the large quarry on the northern brow of the Island of 

 Portland was, at the time of my visit (in July, 1832), peculiarly interesting ; and 

 although prepared by a perusal of the excellent Memoirs of Mr. Webster, and Dr. 

 Buckland, (Geol. Trans. 2d series, vol. ii.) for the phenomena presented to my 

 view, I was struck with astonishment at the extraordinary scene; the floor of the 

 quarry was literally strewed with fossil wood, and before me were the remains of 

 a petrified tropical forest, the trees and the plants, like the inhabitants of the city 

 in Arabian story, being converted into stone, yet still maintaining the places which 

 they occupied when alive. 



