STAFFORDSHIRE COAL FIELD. 
125 
an area of a somewhat triangular shape, for 
about two thousand seven hundred square 
yards. 
This ter race of coal exhibits on its sur¬ 
face one of the most remarkable accumu¬ 
lations of the fossil remains of the vegeta¬ 
tion of the coal period ever exposed to view. 
There are upwards of seventy trunks of trees^ 
apparently dicotyledonous, broken off close 
to the root, and several of them are more 
than eight feet in circumference : the pros¬ 
trate trunks lying across each other in every 
direction. One of these measured thirty 
feet, another fifteen feet in length, and se¬ 
veral others a few feet less. They are in¬ 
variably flattened to the thickness of from one 
to two inches, yet both the upper and under 
side preserve a distinct trace of bark. The 
stumps also exhibit a distinct ring of bark, 
which as usual has become a bright coal, with 
a crystalline fracture: while the interior, or 
woody part, is a dead looking coal, nearly 
approaching to canal coal. 
These stumps seldom rise much above 
the surface. Many of them are surrounded 
by a circular ridge formed by the materials 
L 5 
