274 



NOTE ON THE SUBMERGED FOREST & PEAT BEDS 

 AT REDCAK. 



By Mh. Henry Simpson. 



Those meniljers of the Field Chib who are interested in 

 geology will not need to be told that the general opinion has long 

 been that in times not very remote, from a geological point of 

 view, what is now covered by the North »Sea was a verdant well- 

 Avooded plain with a large river — a continuation of the 

 present Rhine — running down the middle of it to the North, and 

 debouching into the Atlantic Ocean somewhere between the North 

 of Scotland and the South-west of Norway. Of this great river the 

 Thames, Ouse, Tees, and other east coast rivers would probably 

 be tributaries. Between the North of Scotland and the West 

 Coast of Norway there exists a bank now submerged through which 

 it is supposed the waters of the ocean burst, and formed the North 

 Sea, and doubtless also the Baltic. That was, it is believed, 

 before the Straits of Dover existed. The North Sea is very 

 shallow, being nowhere more than 400 feet deep, and what is now 

 known as the Dogger Bank, which is opposite the Coast of 

 Yorkshire and Durham, must have been one of the highlands of 

 this extensive plain. On that bank the depth of the Avater is so 

 small that in a storm the sand from the bottom is often carried on 

 to the decks of vessels .sailing over it. When the North Sea was 

 dry land Huntcliff, Rockclifte, Flamborough Head, &c., would 

 slope gently into the plain in the same way as Eston Hills, High- 

 cliffe, Koseberry, &c., do in these days. 



Evidence of the change from land to sea is afibrded by the 

 fact that tree trunks and branches have been brought up from 

 the bottom of the ocean Ity trawlers and others, and at consider- 

 able distances from the present shore line, while close to the coast 

 in various parts of the East of England are to be found remains 

 of ancient forests. More partifularly is this the case in the 

 neighbourhood of Redcar, and Itetween Seaton Carew and 

 Hartlepool on the opposite side of the Tees ^louth. The remains 

 at Redcar are the more extensive and are embedded in dejaosits of 

 jieat, which deposits are covered by sand of considerable thickness. 

 At rare intervals after imusually heavy storms this sand is swept 

 away, and the beds of peat are exposed near low water mark, but 

 it is only for a few tides that they remain uncovered. Doubtless, 

 it is due to the fact that these beds are protected by the rocks 



