4 Contributions towards Establishing the General Character 



extent of coast, may well have appeared surprising and pecu- 

 liar ; whilst to us, familiar with the appearance, it excites no 

 such feeling, has a common-place character, and is apt to be 

 overlooked as to its consequences. 



That the comparative mildness of the climate of Great 

 Britain, so different from what might be expected from its 

 latitude, and especially of its northern shores, is chiefly owing 

 to the peculiar manner in which they are " laved continuously 

 by the ebb and flow of the ocean," can hardly be doubted, 

 keeping in mind, that the sea which washes them is shallow 

 rather than deep. Compare our ports always open, even the 

 most northern, in the severest winters, with those of certain 

 tideless seas, as the Baltic and the northern shallow portion 

 of the Black Sea annually closed by ice, and yet a large por- 

 tion of the former is not farther north than the Frith of Forth, 

 on the shores of which the arbutus flourishes ; and the other 

 is not less than four degrees farther south, than the most 

 southern part of England,^ where the myrtle thrives in the 

 open air, and its berries ripen. The flux and reflux of the sea 

 may be considered as compensating for want of depth of water 

 on our coasts ; and the tide having its source in the ocean, 

 may be likened to streams exempt from freezing, from the 

 circumstance of their flowing out of deep lakes, reservoirs of 

 warmth, such as many of those of the Highlands of Scotland, 

 and which in themselves have a marked mitigating eff*ect on 

 the climate of their banks. 



The OakS; Ambleside^ Nov. 4. 1813. 



Contributions towards establishing the General Character of the 

 FossilFlants of the genus Sigillaria. By William King, Esq., 

 Curator of the Museum of the Natural History Society 

 of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne. 

 With a Plate. (Communicated by the Author.) 



None of the vegetable forms constituting the flora of the carboniferous 

 epoch have excited more attention as it regards their general character, 

 than those which are included in the genus kigillaria* 



* The following are the synonyms of this fossil : — Phytolithm Batvsoni, P. tes- 



