123 



Grimsby, a submaiijie Forest, which, in ages far remote, 

 . abounded in trees and plants indigenous to the district. This 

 now submerged tract was once inhabited ])y herds of deer and 

 oxen, as is evident from the remains of tht-ir horns and bones 

 which have been occasionally found there ; the foot of man has 

 also trodden these now ruined wastes, for works of art have 

 been met with, buried with the forest beneath the waves. 



" It is difficult to reach this overwhelmed forest from Hun- 

 stanton without the assistance of a boat ; but in the autumn 

 of 1831, accompanied by a friend, the writer managed to visit 

 it on foot. 



" About two miles north of the cliff!, and a mile and a-half 

 from high water mark, we arrive at the prostrate forest, con- 

 sisting of numberless large timber trees, trunks, and branches, 

 many of them decomposed, and so soft that they might easily 

 be penetrated by a sj)ade. These vegetable remains are now 

 occupied by an immense colony of living pholades and other 

 molluscs, and lie in a black mass of vegetable matter, which 

 seems to be composed of smaller branches, leaves, and plants 

 of under growth, occupying altogether a space of. about five or 

 six hundred acres. 



" Many of the trees, however, are quite sound, and still fit for 

 domestic purposes ; and, indeed, they are sometimes used by 

 the proprietors of the neighbouring lands for posts and rails. 

 But the most extraordinary thing we met with, in this expedition 

 to the submarine forest, was a British flint celt, or axe embedded 

 in the trunk of one of the decomposed trees, about an inch and 

 a-half, by its cutting edge. This curiosity is now deposited in 

 the Norwich Museum. 



Westward Ho ! — In the Exeter Museum are flint flakes. 

 Horses teeth, remains of Ox, and Cervus Elaphus, which were 

 taken out of the Blue Clay deposit near Westward Ho, 23 feet 

 below high-water mark ; also vertebra? of Cervus Elaplms from 

 the submerged forest, Bideford Bay. 



Since the foregoing was printed, my friend Mr. John Bellows, 

 who has just been in Lancashire, has furnished me with the 

 following account, shewmg a great extension of submerged 

 forest in the north-west coast of England, and which is probably 

 a continuation of the one referred to on page 119, as occurring 

 between the Dee and the Mersey ; as well as with a specimen of 

 the timber he describes : — 



"Happening to mention the subject of suhnacrged forests to T. Lawrenson, 

 a most intelligent inhabitant of Poulton-le-Fylde, he offered to take nie to 



