242 . The Rev. J. Yates's Notice of a Submarine Forest 



through it. The peat is extensively cut for fuel by the poor 

 people on the coast. Both the decayed wood and the peat 

 are penetrated very generally by the Pholas Candida. I found 

 the wood to be inhabited also by multitudes of the Teredo 

 navalis. although I did not observe any specimen of the latter 

 animal in the peat. 



The wood is found in every stage of decay. The bark re- 

 mains in many instances around the trunks, much less altered 

 than they are by time. 



Among the species of wood, the most easily distinguish- 

 able is that of the Pinus sylvestris, or Scotch Fir. This is so 

 little decayed as to be sometimes used for the purposes of car- 

 pentry. Dr. Bostock informs me, that he has seen the wood 

 of Scotch fir, together with birch and oak, taken out of Bar- 

 ton Moss, a few miles to the north of Liverpool. Of the oc- 

 currence of Scotch fir, in others of the Lancashire mosses, as 

 well as in fens and submarine forests in Cheshire, Yorkshire, 

 and Lincolnshire, abundant evidence is afforded by the testi- 

 mony of the Rev. Abraham De laPryme, (Phil. Trans, vol. xxii. 

 p. 980, &c. vol. xxiii. p. 1073), of Evelyn in his Silva, (ch. xxii. 

 p. 298, ed. Hunter,) of the Rev. John Whitaker in his History 

 of Manchester (vol. i. p. 310), and of Dr. Correa de Serra in 

 the Philosophical Transactions for 1799. The facts stated 

 by these authors prove, that about the commencement of the 

 Christian aera there were in the above-named counties ex- 

 tensive forests of Scotch fir. It appears, however, to have been 

 confined to low marshy situations, as I find no evidence of its 

 growth upon any of the more hilly parts of the country. In 

 Hatfield Chace, in the south of Yorkshire, there were some of 

 these native firs remaining until about the middle of the seven- 

 teenth century, and the last of them was cut down only thirty 

 years before Mr. De la Pryme sent his paper to the Royal So- 

 ciety. Thus we see that the natural order of Coniferae may 

 be traced in the English strata from the geological a?ra of the 

 Independent Coal Formation to within two hundred years of 

 our own time, although the Scotch fir, the last of the tribe, 

 is now excluded by botanists from the living Flora of the 

 country. 



Another kind of wood, which is found in the submarine 

 forest of Cardigan Bay, and which seems to be amentaceous 

 (either birch, alder, or willow), is much more thoroughly de- 

 cayed. But the solvent and corroding powers of the water 

 have acted only on the sap, resins, gums, or other contents 

 of the vessels of the wood, and not upon the vessels them- 

 selves. The vascular tissue seems to remain quite uninjured. 

 After breaking off a portion of this wood I could, with my 



