746 
Proceedings of the Royal Society 
communication. Some months ago he showed me at his works, 
Haymarket, the trunk of a large oak which had been obtained from 
beds of sand- and gravel in his property at Olive Bank, Musseh 
burgh. The wood was very dark in colour, and in a fine state of 
preservation. It was, in fact, in process of being sawn into planks, 
from which a number of useful and ornamental articles have since 
been made. The trunk was perfectly straight, showing no appear- 
ance of branches, and when first uncovered measured 31 feet in 
length, having a diameter of 2 feet at the butt end close to the 
roots, from which it tapered upwards very gradually. The portion 
seen by me in Mr Kobertson’s premises had been more or less 
scraped by his workmen, and the bark was almost entirely wanting ; 
but I was informed that very little bark appeared when the tree 
was disinterred. The roots were somewhat rounded, and looked as 
if they had been rubbed and abraded. Shortly afterwards I visited 
the sand-pit, and saw the trunk of another large oak in situ. It was 
only partially uncovered, the portion concealed being buried under 
some 10 feet of sand and gravel. The trunk was hollow and filled 
with wet sand, and the wood was so soft that it could be cut in 
most places with a spade. The greatest diameter of the exposed 
portion was 3 feet 9 inches, and when the trunk was finally dug 
out it was found to measure 18 feet in length. But Mr Eobertson 
informs me that, before the time of my first visit to the sand-pit, 
the workmen had dug away a considerable portion of the dark 
brown soft woody matter, under the impression that this was merely 
“ peat,” and he estimates the length of the part so removed as 
not less than 30 feet, and thinks the trunk at its butt end could not 
be less than 5 feet in diameter. This would give a total length for 
the trunk of 48 feet. It was not so straight as E"o. 1 tree, and 
unlike it, it had several branches. Most of the bark had been 
removed from the tree before the time of its entombment, but some 
still adhered in places, and was covered with a foliaceous lichen. 
Here and there also the trunk was thickly set with the stems of a 
clinging or climbing plant, wEich may have been ivy. I did not, 
however, detect any leaves of that plant ; but in the hollow of the 
trunk I picked out a few leaves of holly, and other vegetable 
matter which was too decayed to allow of identification. Since 
this tree was exposed, other two have been extracted. One of these 
