6
CURIOUS FOSSIL TREES.
[Chap. I.
1841
the woody tissue is retained. Soon after my arrival in the colony, magnificent specimens of a fossil tree were shown me, dug out of a volcanic rock. Some of the masses weighed many pounds, and so perfectly resembled splintered white deal in colour and surface, that to believe them stone, it was necessary to feel how hard and heavy they were. I had afterwards an opportunity of visiting the tree from whence these specimens had been obtained, and collected examples from various parts.
"The general aspect of the fossil is that of the stump of a pine-tree, silicified throughout, about six feet in height, and two feet and a half in diameter at the base. It stands upright, in a cliff of hard black or blue-grey vesicular basalt, by which it was originally enclosed, but which has been quarried away from the exposed portion. The lower part, which, however, shows no appearance of dividing into roots, is cylindrical, the upper much injured and broken into such splinters as I had seen at Hobarton. The circumference (which has been called the bark) is composed of a beautiful rich brown glassy agate: it exhibits only obscure traces of concentric rings, and does not fracture in the direction of these, or of the medullary rays. The rest of the wood is of snowy whiteness, with a grain similar to that of deal. Every successive concentric ring or year's growth, amounting to upwards of a hundred, was well marked, from the narrow pith to the agatized