44 The Scottish Naturalist. 



and bones of a large deer, and from the lower part of it trunks 

 of oak trees have been dug. The contents of the deposit, as well 

 as its position, indicate pretty clearly that it is of a similar age 

 to the lower Carse clays, that have numerous long-buried peat 

 beds and trunks of prostrate trees — the remains of the ancient 

 forests that flourished in the Carses, when the land stood many 

 feet above its present level. The blue or shell clay extends 

 away seaward, as far at least as low water mark. At this point 

 it is in near contact with a bed of peat that some years ago was 

 occasionally exposed to view at extreme low water, and also during 

 storms, when pretty large pieces of it were thrown ashore on the 

 sands. These I used to examine closely for remains of insects. 

 From the action of the sea, combined with a change of the 

 current of the Eden, all the peat within reach of the water 

 is now either washed away or covered up with sand and 

 mud. 



This is not a solitary instance of peat being found within tide 

 mark. It is well known that beds of peat, containing trunks 

 and branches of large trees, occur at numerous places along 

 the coasts of Scotland, England and other countries, not only be- 

 tween tide mark, but often stretching away, far out under the sea. 

 From the frequency with which submerged peat and forest beds 

 have been discovered by the dredge, soundings, and otherwise, 

 along the bottom of the German Ocean and English Channel, 

 and the number of bones of land animals that are now and again 

 brought up from these areas, many eminent geologists are of opinion 

 that almost the whole bed of the North Sea and English Channel,, 

 was slowly upraised into dry land after the deposition of the Gla- 

 cial clays, and that about this period the connection between the 

 British island and the continent was once more completed. A 

 continental condition of Britain in recent times, geologically 

 speaking, was one of the able speculations of the late Professor 

 Forbes,* mainly arrived at from the study of the distribution of 

 the present flora and fauna of Europe. He pointed out, that 

 as nearly all our indigenous animals, and the greater part of our 

 plants were derived from the Germanic regions of the continent, 

 a union of the two countries was absolutely necessary to allow of 

 the migration of these plants and animals over the elevated bed 

 of the sea. 



When the bed of the German Ocean thus stood above 



* Memoirs of the Geological Survey Vol. I. 



