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DAVIS: REMAINS OF FOSSIL TREES AT CLAYTON. 
of the root is 16*0 feet ; if the smaller roots could have been traced 
they would no doubt have been found to extend to a much greater 
distance. The roots are all within a few inches of being on exactly 
the same horizon, a somewhat remarkable fact which appears to 
indicate that the bed beneath the one of shale in which the tree grew 
and flourished was more or less indurated before the growth of the 
trees, and offered resistance to the downward tendency of the roots. 
The tree in due course died, and the stem decayed down to the level 
at which it was embedded in the clay or earth in which it grew. The 
hollow stem became filled with sand and clay, and eventually the 
whole of the woody tissue was replaced by mineral matter, and a more 
or less exact representation of the original tree was formed, and has 
been preserved. Examples of comparatively recent date may be 
frequently seen in swampy districts, in which the roots and boles of 
trees are found, the latter decayed down to the level of the surround- 
ing mud, and similar examples in the peat on the neighbouring hills 
are not uncommon in which the stump and roots of the trees are 
preserved exactly as in the ancient carboniferous fossil. 
A photograph of the somewhat similar stem of a tree found at 
Wadsley, near Sheffield, was issued with the proceedings of the 
Society for the year 1876, a short description of the fossil being 
given in that year's proceedings (vol. vi. p. 179), and also in the 
Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxxi. p. 358, the 
latter contributed by Dr. H. C. Sorby, F.R.S. Previous to the 
discovery of these examples, numerous observations had been 
recorded of fossil trees occurring in the coal and the sand- 
stones of carboniferous age in various parts of the country. Mr. 
E. W. Binney (Phil. Mag. vol. xxiv., p. 165, etc.), has given the 
result of his investigations in the coal fields of Lancashire. Mr. 
Henry Beckett (Quar. Journ. Geological Society, vol. i. p. 41) describes 
the stems and roots numbering seventy-three in an area of a quarter 
of a mile. They occurred in an open working of the coal in Park- 
field Colliery, Wolverhampton. Mr. W. Jek (op. cit. p. 43), also 
contributes a paper on these remains, in which he describes the sec- 
tion stating that in beds 12 feet in thickness there are three beds of 
coal, and that each of them on its surface exhibits the remains of a 
