FORESTS, FOSSIL, have been frequently observed in the coal measures. The seams of coal in general been formed from the vegetation of the locality where they occur, it is to be expected that when the coal is removed, the stools and roots of the trees would be observed in the immediately subjacent bed of shale—the ancient soil. Such a forest was laid bare in an open work at Parkfield colliery, near Wolverhampton, in 1844. In the space of about one fourth of an acre, the stumps of 73 trees, with their roots attached, appeared: The trunks, broken off close to the root, were lying pros trate in every direction, often crossing each other. One of them measured 15, another 30 ft. in length, but they were generally shorter. They were invariably converted into coal, and flattened to the thickness of 1 or 2 inches. The upright sterns show that some of them had a circumference of more that 8 feet. Similar F. F. have been, observed m the coal-fields of Nova Scotia, and have been carefully described by Lyell, Logan, and Dawson.. The usual height of the trees observed by Lye]] was from 6 to 8 ft.; but one tree was about 25 ft. high, and 4 ft. in diameter. Brogniart describes the remains of a fossil forest preserved in an upright position, in strata of micaceous sand stone, belonging to the coal measures at St. Etienne, near Lyons. Though most abun dant in strata of the carboniferous period, F. F. have been observed in other forma tions. The dirt-bed (q.v.) of the lower Purbeck series is the remains of an ancient for est. Instances are also abundant in the strata. Sometimes, as on the coast of Devonshire and on the shores of the firth of Tay, they are exposed on the surface.
stretching from high-water mark to far below the furthest limit of low water; or they are exhibited in section, as in the cliffs of eastern Norfolk, where, resting on the chalk or crag, there is a stratum in which the stools and roots of the trees stand in their natural position, the trunks having been .broken short off, and imbedded with their branches and leaves. Tills stratum is covered with fresh-water beds and drift. The position of these forests inaicates a variation, in recent geological time,of the relative level of land and water. The instancee in Devonshire and Fifesbire may imply a simple subsidence of the land; at Norwich, however, a• considerable depression must have taken place, to admit of the deposition of the fresh-water beds and the till, and a sub sequent elevation, to expose the beds so high above the sea-level.' The remains of ancient forests, belonging to a yet later period, are to be found in beds of peat. There is good evidence that some kinds of peat had their origin in the destruction of forests. Trunks and branches of beech, hazel, fir, etc., are found in them, and their roots may be traced in the underelay. The rapidity with which this peat is formed is very remarkable. At Blair-Drummond, the stratum of peat is 8 to 10, and in some places even 20 ft. in thickness. Many of the trees here have been felled with the ax, and that this was done while the Romans were in possession of the country is proved by the discovery of "corduroy roads," leading from one camp to another, and the finding of camp-kettles at the bottom of the peat.