1913] JOHNSON—COASTAL SUBSIDENCE 451 
investigate botanical phases of the question, and my modest 
excursions into the realms of a sister science have been made most 
profitable because of the courtesy and generous assistance of some 
of my botanical colleagues. I shall be glad if the observations 
here set down prove of interest to some of the many students of 
botany who have noted the indications of changes of level afforded 
by plant life along the coast. 
Throughout this article the expression “recent subsidence” 
is employed to designate subsidence within the last few thousand 
years, and “remote subsidence” to designate a sinking of the land 
which occurred more than 4000 or 5000 years ago. One may 
divide the botanical evidences of recent subsidence of our Atlantic 
coast into three classes, according as they are (1) wholly fictitious 
appearance of changes of level; (2) phenomena produced by loca 
changes in tidal heights-without any real change in the general 
level of either land or sea; and ( 3) phenomena really produced by 
a sinking of the land, but produced so long ago that they cannot 
properly be cited as proofs of a subsidence within the last few 
thousand years. Let us first consider those supposed proofs of 
recent subsidence which are based on 
1. Fictitious appearance of changes of level 
STANDING FORESTS KILLED BY THE INVASION OF THE SEA 
At many points on the Atlantic coast one may observe large 
numbers of trees killed by salt water so recently that they still 
stand erect, and even retain their branches. These trees have 
often been cited as a convincing proof of the recent progressive 
subsidence of the land. Among the localities where oo 
forests killed by the sea have been supposed to show with saps 
clearness a recent subsidence of the land, I will mention but a ie 
GANONG in one of his series of “Notes on the natural history ape 
physiography of New Brunswick,” speaking of the low wots n 
South River, near Pokemouche, says, “in places the ieee ore 
trees still standing with their roots immersed by the highes 
’ Ganonc, W. F., On the physiographic characteristics of the Pokemouche and 
St. Simon rivers. Bull. Nat. Hist. Soc: New Brunswick 5:524-526. 1906. 

