338 
PETRIFIED FOREST OF 
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 mistaken 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 formed,) remained above 
the level of the ocean, cannot be conjectured ; but 
that it was dry land for a considerable period, is 
manifest from the number and magnitude of the 
petrified trees which remain. It is equally evident, 
that it was submerged before the Purbeck and 
Wealden strata began to be deposited ; for the dirt- 
bed, and its contents, are covered by the fresh- 
water limestone of the former. The tropical forest 
of Portland must, therefore, have gradually and 
* The appearance of the large quarry on the northern brow of the 
Island of Portland was, at the time of my visit (in July, 1832), pecu- 
liarly interesting ; and although prepared by a perusal of the excellent 
Memoirs of Mr. Webster, and Dr. Buckland, for the phenomena pre- 
sented 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 oc- 
cupied when alive. 
