SIS Submarme Forest in Largo Bay^ 



same tides on more open parts of the coast. Any set of 

 causes which greatly modify the form of a deeply indented 

 coast, must, therefore, inevitably produce considerable local 

 effects upon the level of high-water." 



Such appear to be some of those views whfch different ob- 

 servers have entertained regarding the origin of submarine 

 forests. They exhibit an unsettled state of opinion, which 

 ought to excite to farther inquiry. Yet it need not be con- 

 cealed that the phenomena themselves furnish satisfactory 

 evidence by which several of the foregoing hypotheses may be 

 sv^ccessfully opposed. 



If the mean level of the ocean be assunied as constant, and 

 the submergence of the land be regarded as the consequence 

 of a general subsidence, connected with earthquakes, we might 

 expect to find the remains of forests occurring, indiscriminately, 

 on all kinds of subsoil, or on such as trees and moss are asso- 

 ciated with at present. But as far at least as my observatioris 

 and reading extend, the submarine forests of this country 

 occupy exclusively a subsoil of lacustrine silt, a deposit indi- 

 cating satisfactorily the existence of a lake preyious to the 

 growth of the forest, c^nd the formation of the peat. And if 

 the waters of the ocean have risen in their level, in consequence 

 of an addition to th^ir mass, no matter frona whence derived, 

 and have overflowed tracts of land, clothed at the time with 

 wood ; the subsoil of these forests should certainly exhibit all 

 the variety which would be displayed by any extensive wooded 

 tract at present, if subjected to inundation or submergence. 



The assumption of the permanence of the mean level of the 

 sea, at any part of the coast, does not appear to be entirely free 

 from objections. When we take into consideration the various 

 currents which traverse the ocean, those rivers of the deep, as 

 they may be denominated, such as the Gulf Stream, it does not 

 seem unreasonable to suppose, that the mean level of the 

 ocean, at those places against which the currents strike, may 

 exhibit occasional irregularities. These may arise from changes 

 either iq the velocity or direction of the current, at the place, 

 produced by alterations in the form of the headlands, or the 

 distribution of the sand-banks, and altogether independent of 

 the tidal wave. It appears to be owing to some such combina- 

 tion of causes, that the waters of ^he Red Sea maintain a con- 



