Page:A Voyage of Discovery and Research in the Southern and Antarctic Regions Vol 2.djvu/19

1841

curious remains of a former forest in company with his Excellency Sir John Franklin, and conducted to the more remarkable spots by Mr. Barker, the proprietor of the estate of Rose Garland, where they were discovered by him, and by whose care they have been in some measure preserved from the destructive hammers of wandering geologists. The most beautiful of them has, however, been much disfigured, and a great portion of it carried away. Mr. Barker was so kind as to offer all that remained of it to me, for the purpose of being sent to the British Museum; but it appeared to me a kind of sacrilege to remove such a relic from the spot to which it belonged, where it could be seen to so much more advantage by geologists, and, as I had sent still more complete specimens from Kerguelen Island, would be but of comparatively little value elsewhere. I declined his liberal offer, and begged of him to take more effectual measures for its preservation, which he promised to do.

Dr. Hooker's account of his examination of the fossil wood of this valley, will be equally interesting to the geologist and the botanist. He says,—"one of the most remarkable circumstances, connected both with the geology and botany of Tasmania, is the occurrence of vast quantities of silicified wood, either exposed on the plains, or imbedded in rocks, both of igneous and aqueous formation. Those of the former, in particular, are the most striking, from their singular beauty, and the very perfect manner in which the structure of