2 16 Submaritie Foreji on the eaft Coajl ofEnghnd. 



VIII. 



On a fubmanne Foreji on the eajl Ceajl of England*. By Joseph Correa DE Serra, 



LL.D. F.R.S. and AS. 



I 



N geology, more perhaps than in any other branch of natural hiilory, there exifts a neccf- 

 fity of ftridtly feparating the fafls obferved from the ideas, which, in order to explain them, 

 may occur to the mind of the obferver. In the prefent ftate of this fcience, every well af- 

 certained fadt increafes our ftill narrow ftock of real knowledge ; when, on the contrary, the 

 reafonings we are enabled to make arc, at beft, but ingenious guefTes, which too often bias 

 and miflead the judgment. I Ihall, therefore, endeavour in this paper, to give, firft, a mere 

 defcription of the obje£l unmixed with any fyflematica! ideas, and fliall afteAvards offer fuch 

 conjeftures on its caufe as feem to me to be fairly grounded on obfervation. 



It was a common report in Lincolnfhire, that a large extent of iflets of moor, fituated 

 along its coaft, and vifible only in the loweft ebbs of the year, was chiefly compofed of 

 decayed trees. Thefe iflets are marked in Mitchell's chart of that coaft, by the name of 

 clay huts ; and the village of Huttoft, oppofite to which they principally lie, feems to have 

 derived its name from them. In the month of September, 1796, I went to Sutton, on the 

 coaft of Lincolnfliire, in the company of the right honourable prefident of this fociety, in 

 order to examine their extent and nature. The 19th of the month, being the firft day after 

 the equinoiitial full moon, when the loweft ebbs were to be expected, we went in a boat at 

 half-paft 1 2 at noon, and foon after fet foot upon one of the largeft iflets then appearing. 

 Its expofed furface was about thirty yards long, and twenty-five wide, when the tide was at 

 the loweft. A great number of fmiil»r iflets were vifible round us, chiefly to the eaftward 

 and fouthward ; and the fiftiermen, whofe authority on this point is very competent, fay that 

 fimilar moors are to be found along the whole coaft, from Skegnefs to Grimfby, particularly 

 off Addelthorpe and Mablethorpe. The channels dividing the iflets were, at the time we 

 iaw them, wide and of various depths j the iflets themfelves ranging generally from eaft to 

 .weft in their largeft dimenfion. 



We vifited them again in the ebbs of the 20th and 21ft ; and though it generally did not 

 ebb fo far as we expected, we could, notwithftanding, afcertain that they confifted almoft 

 entirely of roots, trunks, branches, and leaves of trees, and ftirubs, intermixed with fome 

 leaves of aquatic plants. The remains of fome of thefe trees were ftill ftanding on their 

 roots ; while the trunks of the greater part lay fcattered on the ground, in every polTible 

 diredion. The bark of the trees and roots appeared generally as frefh as when they were 

 growing> in that of the branches particularly, of which a great quantity was found ; even 

 the thin filvery membranes of the outer fkln were difcernible. The timber of all kinds> on 

 the contrary, was decompofed and loft in the greateft part of the trees ; in fbmc, however, 



* Philof. Tranfaftlons, 1799. 



