xii APPENDIX. 
     
    
   
   
    
     these are several beds of brownish sandstone of va-‘ 
     
     rious qualities, one stratum appearing to be sufficient- 
     
     ly hard for building purposes. lmbedded in one 0 
     
    

    
     these layers appear some large fossil trees, one 0 
     
    

    
     them nearly three feet in diameter; they are prostrate 
     
     and much flattened by pressure, and the place once5 
     
     occupied by their wood is now filled with a hard dark-‘ 
     
     coloured silicious (flinty) stone, which, when polished 
     
     in thin slices and examined by the microscope, dis- 
     
     plays the structure ofthe original wood. These trees 
     
     appear to have been partially decomposed before they 
     
     were submitted to the petrifying process, and the 
     
     rents caused by decay are now filled with red colour- 
     
     ed crystals of Sulphate of Barytes. In some ofthe 
     
     specimens the fissures are coated with silicious crys- 
     
     tals, and portions ofsome of the trunks consist ofa 
     
     soft carbonaceous ironstone, retaining the woody 
     
     structure. Having prepared several slices of one of 
     
     these fossils, and examined them with a microscope, I 
     
     found a structure composed of elongated cells, simi— 
     
     lar-to those of coniferous trees, (pines, firs, 8w.) but 
     
     could perceive no trace ofthe disks and reticulations 
     
     on the walls ofthe cells which characterise the wood 
     
     ofthese plants, and even the medullary rays were 
     
     very indistinct. Though it is probable therefore that 
     
     these trees were coniferous plants, somewhat similar 
     
     to pines, the species, whether recent or fossil, to 
     
     which they belong is uncertain.* 
     
    
   
   
    
     Their appearance in these sand stones carries back 
     
     our thoughts to a period when Prince Edward Island 
     
     was a tract of submarine sand, in which drift trees 
     
     were imbedded and preserved, and which has since 
     
     been indnrated and partially elevated above the 
     
     level of the sea. In another of these sand stone 
     
     beds are the remains of a large tree compressed to 
     
    
   
   
    
       
     
    
   
   
    
     * In the coal measure sand stones of Pictou, two species of fossil 
     
     coniferul, one similar to Pinites Wilhami, the other resembling re- 
     
     cent pines, are found abundantly. The specimens from Orwell Point. 
     
     merely resemble the latter species. A specimen of the wood from 
     
     Orwell Point has been placed in the collection of the Mechanics' 
     
    
   
   
    
     Institute at Charlottetown.