74 
REVIEWS. 
also found in the same state of silicification. The trunks apparently extended a consi¬ 
derable distance into the interior of the hill, and were bituminous and friable. Many of 
those which were embedded crumbled away on being struck with a pickaxe, which 
readily found its way into any part of them, rendering their removal impossible ; some 
of them were in such a state of carbonization as to approach lignite in character. The 
whole conveyed the idea of the hill being entirely composed of wood. As far as our ex¬ 
cavations were carried, nothing else was met with, except the loamy soil in which they 
were embedded ; but the decay of the wood in ^ome places appeared to form its own soil. 
The petrifactions, with numerous pieces of wood, were found strewn everywhere over the 
surface of this and many of the contiguous hills. Many specimens of these were obtained, 
varying from one to fourteen inches in length, the longest not exceeding five or six in 
circumference; they consisted of portions of the branches of trees. Some of them were 
impregnated with iron (brown haematite), had a distinct metallic tinkle when struck, and 
were heavier than other pieces, without the metallic impregnation or sound ; they were 
simply silicified, the sand entering into the composition of the soil being siliceous or 
quartzose. Several smaller pieces of fresh wood were also found strewn about, which 
had not been, perhaps, subject to the petrifying influence of the water. The numerous 
small rills which issued from the interior, similar to those I had seen in the morning, 
flowed over the surface, and the constituents of the water, largely impregnated as it was 
with iron and sulphur, indicated from whence the metallic agency in the petrifaction was 
derived; this also possessed a dull yellowish -brown discoloration of the sulphur, and 
the stones everywhere over which the water flowed were coated with the same. 
“ On several of the neighbouring hills I observed distinct stratifications of wood run¬ 
ning horizontally in a circular course, formed by the protrusion of the ends of the trunks 
of trees, to some of which the bark still adhered ; and large pieces of this, cropping 
out and hanging loosely, frequently led in other situations to our detection of the wood 
to which the bark adhered in the soil. Any attempt to remove these with the hand or 
other slight means failed; and excavation ever established the fact that the hills were 
entirely composed of wood—the appearances met with being identical with those first 
mentioned. On subsequent occasions, when exploring the land several miles in the in¬ 
terior, observation led me to infer that a precisely similar state of things there existed. 
The situation in which our first excavation was made was in lat. 74° 27' N., long. 122° 
32' 15" W., and about a quarter of a mile from the beach. The distance, inland, whence 
similar appearances were observed, embraced a circuit from eight to ten miles in di¬ 
ameter. 
“This discovery of wood in a recent and petrified state in a part of the world where 
we could have had no expectation of finding it, in regions whose blighting climate is op¬ 
posed to the nurture of vegetable life, as evidenced in its scanty verdure, stunted Flora, 
and creeping dwarf-willow, its only arborescent production, could not but impart a fea¬ 
ture of great interest to our voyage, and was a subject for geological research no less in¬ 
teresting than strange. Similar appearances, observed elsewhere, bear so striking an 
analogy to this singular discovery as to invest it with still greater interest, and I cannot 
forbear alluding to them here. In the explorations of the Ustiansk Expedition, under 
Lieut. Anjou, in 1821-23, on the South Coast of New Siberia, and in about the same la¬ 
titude as that of our discovery in Baring Island, 4 wood hills’ were discovered composed 
of trunks of trees some ten inches in diameter, not very hard, of a black colour, bitumi¬ 
nous and friable.* 
“Hendenstrom observes:— 4 On the southern coast of New Siberia are found the re¬ 
markable Wood Hills. They are 30 fathoms high, and consist of horizontal strata of 
sandstone, alternating with strata of bituminous beams or trunks of trees. On ascending 
these hills, fossilized charcoal is everywhere met with, covered apparently with ashes, 
but on closer examination, this ash is also found to be a petrifaction, and so hard, that 
it can hardly be scraped off with a knife. On the summit, another curiosity is found, 
namely, a long row of beams, resembling the former, but fixed perpendicularly in the 
* “ Vide ‘Appendix to Baron Wrangell’s Voyage,’ translated by Major-General 
Sabine.” 
