456 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [DECEMBER 
deposits under the weight of barrier beaches (fig. 4), and to other 
causes, have been observed at many points along the coast. The 
more one sees of this type of evidence the more does he realize 
its unreliability. 
SUBMERGED PEAT 
Another botanical evidence of subsidence, frequently appealed 
to with confidence by those who believe in recent subsidence of 
the Atlantic coast, is the submerged peat exposed at many points 
along the shores, sometimes a little below high tide, often a con- 



Fic. 3.—Submerged peat and stumps produced by an invasion of peat bogs by 
the sea; HT, high tide; LT, low tide. 





Fic. 4.—Submerged peat outcropping at low tide (B) compressed by weight of 
barrier beach: which is encroaching on salt marsh peat deposit (A); HT, high tide; 
LT, low tide. 
siderable distance below low tide. Such deposits may consist of 
the remains of fresh water vegetation, or of the remains of marine 
plants; and both types of deposits have been cited as proofs of a 
recent sinking of the coast. The fresh peat is frequently overlaid 
by salt peat; sometimes the reverse is the case; while in other 
places one or the other type of peat occurs alone. It is uncommon, 
however, to find such a repeated interstratification of fresh peat 
with marine deposits as SKERTCHLEY™ has described for the English 
fenland, or CaAvEUx™ for a portion of the French coast, although 
*3 SKERTCHLEY, S. B. J., The geology of the fenland. Memoir Geol. Surv. Eng- 
land and Wales. Losutont: 1877. pp. 145-151, 172-174. 
YEUX, L., Les tourbes immergées de la céte Bretonne dans le région de 
Plougasno-Primel (Finistére). Bull. Soc. Géol. France IV. 6:142-147. 1906. 
