452 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
afford striking evidence of the rapid subsidence this coast is under- 
going.” ABRAHAM GESNER* described standing forests of beech, 
birch, and maple, killed by the seawater which overflowed their 
roots, as a proof that the coasts of Cascumpeque Harbor in Prince 
Edward Island had undergone the most recent subsidence of which 
he had knowledge. Cook, in the paper referred to in the first 
paragraph of this article, describes dead forests still standing, 
found on several parts of the New Jersey coast. Sir CHARLES 
LYELL’ saw in standing forest trees killed by the tide near the 
mouth of Cooper River, South Carolina, a proof of very modern 
subsidence of that coast. 
The region described by GANONG has been examined by GOLD- 
THWAIT, with whom I have had the privilege of cooperating in the 
work along the coast of southeastern Canada. After a careful 
study of the dead trees on this part of the coast, GoLtpTHWAIT® 
has reached the conclusion that death has resulted in some cases 
from fire, and in others from a local rise in the high tide level after 
the manner indicated in section 2 below. I have myself made a 
careful study of the Cascumpeque Harbor locality and find that 
the dead trees described by GEsNER may be reasonably explained 
without imagining a subsidence of the coast.2 Three distinct 
causes have operated to kill the forest of this portion of the shore. 
On the outer side of the barrier beach the waves are cutting away 
the shore and hurling the sands up into the forest. During storms 
the waves break over the sandy accumulation, and the salt water 
saturates the sand about the roots of the trees and is ponded back 
in the low depressions, remaining long enough to kill the trees. 
Forests killed in a similar manner are found on parts of the N orth 
Carolina capes. Inside Cascumpeque Harbor the small waves of 
the bay have gently sapped the mainland shores, removing the 
* GESNER, ABRAHAM, On elevations and depressions of the earth in North America. 
Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc. London 17: 381-388. 1861. 
7 LYELL, Caartes, Travels in North America. London. 1845. 1:174-175- 
* Gotptuwarr, J. W. , Supposed evidences of subsidence of the coast of New 
Brunswick within modern times. Unpublished manuscript to appear in an early . 
issue of the Victoria Museum Bulletin. 
* Jounson, D. W., The shore line of Cascumpeque Harbor, Prince Edward 
Island. Geog. Jour. London 42:152-164. 1913. 

