324 
Minutes of the 
above high-water mark; and in others it passes downwards 
and is hidden either by the sea or talus of sand from the 
cliff's. The trunks and roots are converted into a hard com¬ 
pact crystalline limestone as hard as marble; the roots ex¬ 
tending themselves into a chocolate-coloured vegetable mould 
in which they appear to have grown. The slumps are em¬ 
bedded in a pretty hard sandstone, which is composed of fine 
siliceous grains and finely-comminuted shells cemented by a cal¬ 
careous matrix. The unbroken line these fossil trees present is 
singularly interesting, there being no fault in the whole I have 
examined. The sandstone inclosing the trees is very irregular 
in its stratification, exhibiting precisely the structure of a bar 
or sand-bank, if consolidated into rock. The size of the 
largest trees 1 have seen are from eighteen inches to two feet in 
diameter. The characteristic structure of the wood is entirely 
lost; but from the irregularity of the trunks, and the number and 
size of the roots I think there can be little doubt of their exoge¬ 
nous character. Above these stumps and between them and the 
upper fossil forest there is in many places a deposit of sandstone 
calcareous boulders, and loam of upwards of one hundred feet! 
The upper line of trees are in situ, and stand erect where they 
grew ; they are more friable than the lower ones, and exhibit 
the woody character less distinctly. The roots and stems are for 
the most part decorticated, but in a few there are some coarse 
markings not unlike the rough bark of the Casuaracece. The 
broken extremities of the stumps in some places protrude 
through the grass and underwood, and are nowhere covered by 
more than a few feet of sand and vegetable loam, which would 
indicate their submergence did not extend over a long period. 
“The most superficial stratum consists of limestone as white 
and soft as chalk, which it resembles in some of its zoological 
characters, viz. in the existence of nodules of flint which inclose 
spicula of sponges, sharks’ teeth, the spines of a large cidaris 
great numbers of a forameniferous shell, resembling the genus 
lenticulina, several species of terebratula, cellepora, and the 
fossil claws of crustaceans. Other forms will, no doubt be 
brought to light when a more careful examination is made of 
the superficial stratum. This upper deposit appears to have 
been formed under more tranquil circumstauces than the 
lower beds of sandstone, which from the comminuted character 
of the broken shells that enter into its composition indicate the 
action of a boisterous sea. 
“ The changes that appear to have taken place in the level and 
form of the land on this part of the coast are, first, the existence 
of a sand bank, which was gradually raised above the sea level, 
and subsequently covered by a dense vegetation. This land again 
subsided until it became covered by the sea, and after a consider¬ 
able lapse of time (indicated by the amount of detritus accumu¬ 
lated) was elevated, another generation of plants flourished upon it, 
