110 



from two feet to five feet six inches. The vegetable matter is 

 underlaid in places by a varying stratum of light blue clay, about 

 one foot thick, in a great measure analagous in composition to 

 the fire-clay beds often found under coal in the neighbouring coal- 

 fields. One of the bore holes was put down at the edge of the 

 shingle, five feet six inches deep ; and immediately the vegetable 

 deposit was perforated, water rose up to the surface. This was an 

 important aid : it proved that the impervious vegetable stratum 

 underlaid the shingle to a sufficient distance landwards to connect 

 it with the stratum seen in the river bed of the valley of St. Bees. 

 Along the greater part of the submerged south-east boundary, the 

 forest lies on the thick red clay bed which underlies the drift 

 of the escarpment to the south-east ; its opposite margin, however, 

 was not nearly so clearly defined. 



On a consideration of the whole case, I am decidedly of 

 opinion that the forest does not underlie the true glacial deposit 

 adjoining, and that it is continuous up the St. Bees valley, as far 

 as Stanley Pond, and even further, and that it lies under most of 

 the flat or meadow portion of the valley. The underclay is 

 succeeded by huge prostrate trees and roots, and then by decayed 

 plants and peaty matter. A transverse section of the forest 

 would present a concave line at the bottom, and this line indicates 

 the eroded surface, resulting from long continued ice action during 

 the glacial period. The underclay would be produced from the 

 waste and decomposition of the rocks forming the hilly ground at 

 the head and sides of the valley. It is probable that the lower 

 part of the then valley would be partially blocked up, as the clay 

 is lacustrine in character, yielding under the microscope the 

 following species of Diatomaceoe : Epathemia turgida, Epathemia 

 granulata, Epathemia proboscidia, Pinnularia acuta, and frag- 

 ments of other species of this genus. These are all fresh water 

 organisms, and all existing now in this neighbourhood, except the 

 Epathemia granulata, which is peculiar to the Irish Bogs. A 

 fragment of a marine species ( Cositiodiscus punctata ) was found, 

 but this would seem to have been an introduction from the present 

 sea. The submarine forest, as it is called, is really a forest in sit'd. 



