On afubntar'tne For eft on the eqfl Coajl of England. ' " 221 



The ftratum of foil, fixtcen feet thick, placed above the decayed frees, feems to remove the 

 epoch of their finiiing and deftru£lion far beyond the reach of any hiflorical knowledge. In 

 Caefar's time, the level of the North Sea appears to have been the fame as in our days. He 

 mentions the feparation of the Wahal branch of the Rhine, and its junction to the Meufe ; 

 noticing the then exilting diftance from that junftion to the fea, which agrees according to 

 D'Anville's inquiries * with the acSual diftance. Some of the Roman roads, conftru£ted, 

 according to the order of Auguftus, under Agrippa's adminiftration, leading to the maritime 

 towns of Belgium, ftill exift and reach the prefent (hore t- The defcriptions which Roman 

 authors have left us of the coafts, ports, and mouths of rivers, on both fides of the North 

 Sea, agree in general with their prefent ftate ; except in the places ravaged by the inroads of 

 this fea, more apt from its form to deftroy the furrounding countries, than to increafc 

 them. 



An exaft refemblance cxifts between maritime Flanders, and the oppofite low coaft of 

 England, both in point of elevation above the fea, and of internal ftrudure and arrangement 

 of their foils. On both fides ftrata of clay, filt, and fand (often mixed with decayed vege- 

 tables), are found near the furface ; and, in both, thefe fuperior materials cover a very deep 

 ftratum of bluifti or dark coloured clay, unmixed with extraneous bodies. On both fides they 

 are the lowermoft part of the foil, exifting between the two ridges of high lands % on their 

 refpeftive fides of the fame narrow fea. Thefe two countries are certainly coeval, and what- 

 ever proves that maritime Flanders has been for many ages out of the fea, muft, in my opi- 

 nion, prove alfo that the foreft we are fpeaking of was long before that time deftroyed and 

 buried under a ftratum of foil. Now it feems proved from hiftorical records, carefully col- 

 lefted by feveral learned members of the Brufl'els academy, that no miterial change has hap- 

 pened to the lowermoft part of maritime Flanders, during the period of the laft two thoufand 

 years §. 



I am, therefore, inclined to fuppofe the original cataftrophe, which buried this foreft, to be 

 of a very ancient date ; but I fufpeft the inroad of the fea, which uncovered the decayed trees 

 of the iflets of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. The ftate of the leaves and of the tim- 

 ber, and alfo the tradition of the neighbouring people, concur to ftrengthen this fufpicion. 

 Leaves, and other delicate parts of plants, though they may be long preferved in a fubterra- 

 neous fituation, cannot remain uninjured, when expofed to the aftion of the waves and of the 

 air. The people of the country believe that their parifti-church once ftood on the fpot where 

 the iflets now are, and was fubmerged by the inroads of the fea ; that at very low water their 



* D'Anville Notice des Gaules, p. 461. 



t Nicol. Bergier. Hift. des grands Chemins des Remains. Ed. de Bruxelles, vol. II. p. 109. 



} Thefe ridges of high land, both on the Britiih and the Belgic fide, muft be very fimilar to each other, 

 fince they both contain parts of tropical plants in a foffil ftate. Cocoa nuts, and fruits of the arecas arc 

 found in the Belgic ridge. The petrified fruits of Sheppey, and other impreffions of tropical plants on this 

 fide of the water, ^re well known. 



§ Vide feveral papers in the Bruflels Memoirs ; alfo Journ. Phyf. t. XXXIV. p. 401, 



Vol. III. — August 1799. Gg anccftors 



