erior or central part was always circular, but
seldom found of the same diameter, or of the same composition, on any two
stumps. In some the calcareous and sandy matter had taken such entire
possession, that every fragment of the wood was completely obliterated;
but yet a faint central ring remained. In others was a centre of chalk,
beautifully white, that crumbled between the fingers to the finest
powder; some consisted of chalk and brown earth, in various quantities,
and some others had detained a few frail portions of their woody fibres,
the spaces between which were filled up with chalky earth.

It appeared, that when the people of the _Sydney Cove_ first came
upon the island, the pieces of dead branches that at this time were lying
round the stumps, then formed, with them, the stem and branches of dead
trees complete. But by the time Mr. Bass visited the place, the hands of
curiosity, and the frolics of an unruly horse that was saved from the
wreck, had reduced them to the state already described.

Mr. Bass had been told from good authority, that when the trees were in a
complete state, the diameter of the dead wood of the stem that rose
immediately from the stoney part was equal to the diameter of that part;
and also that a living leaf was seen upon the uppermost branches of one
of them. But he could never learn whether the stony part of the stem was
of an equal height in all the trees.

To ascertain to what depth the petrification had extended, Mr. Bass
scratched away the sand from the foot of many of the stumps, and in no
instance found it to have proceeded more than three or four inches
beneath the surface of the sand, as it then lay; for at that depth the
brown and crumbling remains of the root came into view. There were,
indeed, parts of the roots which had undergone an alteration similar to
that which had taken place in the stems: but these tended to establish
the limits of the petrifying power; for they had felt it only either at
their first outset from the bottom of the stems, or when, being
obstructed in their progress, they had of necessity arched upwards toward
the surface.

In attempting to account for the cause that had operated to produce this
change in the structure of the lower parts of the stems of these trees,
Mr. Bass feels the utmost diffidence. He found that all his conjectures
which were best supported by existing facts, led him to place them among
petrifications; although no strict analog