"The so-called 'wood-hills' discovered in 1806 by Sirowatskoi, on
the south coast of the island of New Siberia, consist, according to
Hedenstrom, of horizontal strata of sandstone, aolternating with bituminous
trunks of trees, forming a mound thirty fathoms in neight; at the summit the
stems were in a vertical position. The bed of driftwood is visible at five
wersts' distance." -- See Wrangel, 'Reise Iangs der Nordkuste von Siberien,
in den Jahren' 1820-24, th. i., s. 102.
Near the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the "wood hills" of the Siberian
Polar Sea, described by Admiral Wrangel, the vast number of trunks of trees
accumulated by river and sea water currents affords a striking instance of
theenormous quantities of drift-wood which must have favored the formation
of carboniferous deposition in the island waters and insular bays. There
can be no doubt that these beds owe a considerable portion of the substances
of which they consist to grasses, small branching shrubs, and cryptogamic
plants.
The association of palms and Coniferae, which we have indicated as being
characteristic of the coal formations, is discoverable throughout almost all
formations to the tertiary period. In the present condition of the world,
these genera
p 282
appear to exhibit no tendency whatever to occur associated together.
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