Ill 



Clusters of roots of trees in an upright position may be seen. Oak, 

 Alder, Birch, Fir, Willow and Hazel Trees have taken root and 

 flourished in the underclay, and in turn decayed and been over- 

 run with rank moss growth, along with gigantic reeds, and remains 

 generally of lacustrine flora. Along the valley of St. Bees, some 

 twenty years ago, the river was diverted from its then bed, or 

 course, and a new course made. Wood, hazel-nuts, and other seeds 

 were found in abundance under the alluvial soil, and peat may yet 

 be clearly seen, opposite to Blythe Place in the river bed. Most 

 of the Oak trees are very sound. The forest having fairly been 

 established, as time sped on, the trees decayed and were covered 

 up with decaying leaves and other vegetable debris, forming peat. 

 This was ultimately surmounted by alluvial soil, the waste from 

 the adjoining higher lands. With regard to the epoch of depo- 

 sition, we have no means of measuring geological time in years and 

 centuries, it is merely relative. We can, at the most, but say that 

 one series of deposits is of earlier date than another series, or vice 

 versa ; and the terms early and recent, should be understood to be 

 so only in a geological sense. 



I think we may fairly class the "forest bed" and its under- 

 clay as belonging to the lowest division of the post tertiary or 

 recent system, and consider it to be co-eval with the existence of 

 the Irish Elk, the mammoth, and the long-fronted ox (all now 

 extinct), and Man himself Indeed it is quite probable that 

 primeval man may have hunted the Irish Elk in the forest glades 

 of this epoch, just as his compeer now hunts the buffalo on the 

 prairies of the Far West. 



The geological importance of these deposits is principally due 

 to the aid they render in arriving at correct deductions as to the 

 means whereby beds of lignite, coal, and clays of the earlier 

 epochs have been formed. In this case a piece of greenstone 

 was found embedded in the forest. Some time ago, con- 

 siderable discussion ensued in influential quarters respecting the 

 origin of boulders, fragments of quartz, and other rocks found 

 embedded in true coal. The conditions at St. Bees favouring 

 denudation are opposed to the consolidation of the forest form- 



