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required to produce the best pine-wood, and it has been 

 frequently observed in the north of Scotland, that trees grown 

 in the most exposed situations show the reddest wood and the 

 thickest bark. Yet pines dug out of mosses in the south of 

 England compare favourably with the best timber in the old 

 pine forests of Eothiemurehus. This of itself is enough to show 

 that our climate has greatly changed within comparatively 

 recent times. 



But again, the presence of large oaks biu'ied in peat, at heights 

 and in situations that would now be considered most unfavour- 

 able to their growth, bespeaks the former prevalence of somewhat 

 warmer summers. In short, we ai-e led to conclude that the 

 seasons during the growth of the ancient forests, were more 

 strongly contrasted than they are now. Such conditions would 

 naturally follow upon the union of Britain with the Continent. 

 With broad wooded plains substituted for the German Ocean 

 and the Irish Sea, and with a wider spread of land along our 

 western sea-board, it can hardly be doubted that, other things 

 being equal, our climate would be greatly affected, so much so 

 as to cqiproach in character to that of Germany. 



Forest Bed in the Thames. — The following account of a visit 

 of the Geologists' Association is taken from the Times of July 

 8th, 1873, describing a forest bed in the Thames. "It is not 

 generally known that both at Plumstead and Dagenham, and in 

 other parts of the Thames between Woolwich and Erith, there 

 are visible, at low water, the remains of a submerged foi'est, over 

 which the river now flows, suggesting curious questions as to 

 the former physical geography of the country. The Phenomenon 

 was first described by Captain Pebry about 150 years since, in 

 the interesting narrative he has left of his repairs of Dagenham 

 Breach. . . . Overlaid by some six or eight feet of marsh 

 alluvium was seen a large bed, full of twigs, leaves, seed-vessels, 

 and stools of trees, the species of which were determined by the 

 botanists to be chiefly yew, alder, and oak. A collection of 

 animal remains, consisting of antlers of red deer, jaws of the 

 long-fronted ox, and other recent species, were obtained from 

 the same forest bed during the excavations for the southern 

 outfall sewer in 1862-3." 



Description of the Submarine Forest of Hunstanton, hij the late 

 Eev. George Munford, Vicar of East Winch. — "• A very striking 

 instance of the destruction of land on the borders of the ocean, 

 by the mighty agency of tides and currents, or by some other 

 natural causes, may be seen off the coast of Hunstanton and 

 Holme at low neaps. For there commences at Brancaster Bay, 

 stretching by Holme and Hunstanton, across the Wash, and 

 extending all alonar the coast of Lincolnshire, from Skegness to 



