454 ' BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
sounds and bays, where the water is too fresh to readily kill trees 
which have reached maturity. It is evident that these trees 
could not have commenced to grow in water 5 or 10 feet deep, and 
it was therefore with especial interest that I learned from Dr. C. A. 
Davis that great numbers of such trees occurred near the head- 
ward portion of Albemarle Sound, especially in the vicinity of 
Elizabeth City, North Carolina, affording, in his opinion, excep- 
tionally good proof of recent coastal subsidence. On visiting the 
locality I found hundreds of live cypresses standing in water which 
was often over 5 feet in depth; but the spreading base of these 
trees was just above water level at the same elevation as on the 
adjacent low shore (fig. 1); while the underwater parts divided 
into spreading roots between which an oar could be readily passed. 
It was quite evident that the trees had grown, like their neighbors, 
on a low coast composed of peaty soil; and that the washing 
away of the soil by waves had left the trees standing out in the 
water. This interpretation was confirmed by the finding of 
occasional islets of peat about some of the isolated trees. There 
was no indication of any change in the relative level of land and sea. 
SUBMERGED STUMPS 
Closely allied to the foregoing botanical evidence of subsidence 
is that furnished by submerged stumps. These are found along 
all parts of the Atlantic coast, at depths varying from a few inches 
below high tide to ten feet or more below low tide level, and have 
been repeatedly cited by both botanists and geologists as conclusive 
proofs of recent subsidence. It is hardly necessary to cite specific 
descriptions of these submerged stumps, as they are such common 
features along our shores. 
A study of the submerged stumps convinces one that there 
is a great variety of ways in which they may be produced inde- 
pendently of coastal subsidence. Along the low shores of South . 
Carolina and Georgia the small waves formed in the passage 
between the ‘Sea Islands”’ continually undermine trees and let 
them down into the salt water. So gently does the process operate 
that the trees often remain erect; and I have seen all stages ir 
trees still living on the edge of the shore o. 5-1 meter above tide, 

