158 



SANDSTONE PETRIFACTIONS. 



at a few yards distance, completely the appearance 

 of the decayed stump of a tree. From the shape, 

 I should pronounce it an oak ; but the bark has ra- 

 ther more of a dotted appearance than is usual in 

 the oak. The large branch going off about 4 feet 

 from the root, strongly characterizes it as the trunk 

 of a tree. The next largest petrifaction is £ feet 

 7 inches long^ and 3 feet 1 inch in circumference at 

 the bottom, having much the same appearance on 

 the surface as the first. But the third, which is in 

 length 2 feet 6 inches, and in girth at the bottom, 

 3 feet 5 inches, has the very appearance of a peeled 

 oak ; in so much, that any person whose eye is fa- 

 miliar with such objects, would at once refer it to 

 this tree. , 



The sandstone into which these vegetables have 

 been converted, is rather fine-grained, and so hard 

 as to approach the kind commonly called Quartzy 

 Sandstone. It may be thought rather singular, that 

 the petrifactions themselves should be so much harder 

 and more solid than the stratified matter in which 

 they were imbedded. This, as I said before, is a soft 

 loose mixture of sand and clay. I remember some 

 years ago, meeting with a petrifaction of this sort, 

 in the firm sand, on the sea-shore, to the west of 

 St Andrew's, in Fife. It was the stock of a tree 

 seemingly in situ, about SO inches diameter, laid 

 bare by the waves, and the roots running nearly 

 horizontally in all directions. It appeared to have 

 been cut over by the surface of the ground. I can- 



