420 Submarine Forefl on the eajl Con/i $/ Etig'and, 



however, thefe trees and fhrubs are found Handing on their roots, generally in low or marfliy 

 p'rf.ces, above, or very little below, the adtual level of the fea. 



To this laft defcription of foffil vegetables, the decayed trees here defcribed certainly 

 belong. They have not been tranfported by currents or rivers ; but, though {landing in their 

 native foil, we cannot fuppofe the level, in which they are found, to be the fame as that in 

 which they grew. It would be inipoffible for any of thefe trees or fhrubs to vegetate fo near 

 the fea, and below the common level of its water ; the waves would cover fuch trails of land, 

 and hinder any vegetation. We cannot conceive that the furface of the ocean has ever been 

 lower than it now is ; on the contrary, we are led, by numberlefs phenomena, to believe 

 that the level of the waters in our globe is much below what it was in former periods : we 

 mull, therefore, conclude, that the forefl: here defcribed grew in a level high enough to per- 

 mit its vegetation ; and that the force (whatever it was) which deftroyed it, lowered the level 

 of the ground where it flood. 



There is a force of fublidence (particularly in foft ground), which, being a natural confe- 

 quence of gravity, flowly though perpetually operating, has its aiSion fometimes qiiickeued 

 and rendered fudden, by extraneous caufes ; for inftance, by earthquakes. The flow effefls 

 of this force of fubf.dence have been accurately remarked in many places ; examples alfo of 

 its fudden adlion are recorded in almoft every hiftory of great earthquakes. The (hores of 

 Alexandria, according to Dolomieu's obfervations, are a foot lower than they were in the 

 time of the Ptolemies, Donati, in his natural hiftory of the Adriatic, has remarked, fecm- 

 ingly with great accuracy, the effects of this fubfidence at Venice ; at Pola, in Iftria ; at 

 LifTa, Bua, Zara, and Diclo, on the coaft of Dalmatia. In England, Borlafe has given, in 

 the Philofophical TranfaiSlions *, a curious obfervation of a fubfidence, of at leaft fixteen 

 feet, in the ground between Sampfon and Trefcaw iflands, in Scilly. The foft and low 

 ground between the towns of Thorne and Gowle, in Yorkfliire, a fpace of many miles, has 

 fo much fubfided in latter times, that fome old men of Thorne affirmed, " That whereas 

 they could before fee little of the fteeple (of Gowle), they now fee the church-yard wall f." 

 The inftances of fimilar fubfidence, which might be mentioned, are innumerable. 



This force of fubfidence, fuddenly a£ling by means of fome earthquake, feums to me the 

 moft probable caufe to which the adual fubmarine fituation of the foreft we are fpeaking of, 

 may be afcribcd. It affords a funple, eafy explanation of the matter, its probability is fup- 

 ported by numberlefs inftances of fimilar events, and it is not liable to the ftrong objections 

 which e.^ift againll the hypothefis of the alternate depreflion and elevation of the level of the 

 ocean ; an opinion which, to be credible, requires the fupport of a great number of proofs ; 

 lefs equivocal than thofe which have hitherto been urged in its favour, even by the genius of 

 a J^avoiuer J. 



* Veil XLVIII. p. 6i. f Cough's edition of Camden's Biitannica. t. III. p. 15. 



X Mem. de r Acad, de Paris, 17S9, p. 351. 



"Ihe 



