100 



island : it is the eminence on which Egremont, New Brigh- 

 ton, Liscard, and Wallasey stand. Keeping to the left of 

 this hill, the members of the Society directed their attention 

 to the extended flat that lay before them. 



On the north end, at some distance from the hill, in the 

 position which is marked on the maps as " Salt Marsh," little 

 craggy eminences, or knolls, exhibited the strongest proofs 

 of abrasion by water, when cleared from the moss and turf 

 with which they were overgrown. The last of these which 

 was examined, was a low mound, about thirty or forty 

 perches south-east of the ancient church of Bidston; it 

 seemed to be the last of a series, gradually subsiding towards 

 the shore, and exhibiting, on its top and sides, indeed at all 

 points to which access could be obtained, the clearest marks 

 of mechanical abrasion by water. Proceeding, at once, to 

 the place called the sub-marine forest, the party made their 

 entrance on the beach, at a point between Mockbeggar-hall 

 and the lighthouse of Leasowe. 



It had been so arranged, by the selection of the day for 

 the excursion, that they should reach the shore at the 

 period of low water. To those who expected that the long 

 expanse of sand between the embankment and the water 

 was covered with stumps of trees of various heights — like a 

 forest over which a hurricane had swept — nothing could be 

 more disappointing. Apparently there was nothing worthy 

 of notice beyond the ordinary extent of sand, diversified as 

 usual with little rivulets flowing towards the tide, and with 

 occasional pools or patches of clay. The first indication of 

 a forest was a projecting mass, bike a gigantic nodule of 

 clay, or like a projecting piece of rock. One of the party, 

 however, drew attention to the fact that it was distinctly 

 vegetable matter ; in fact, a veritable stump, exhibiting its 

 fracture horizontally, or nearly so, and its cleavage more or 

 less vertically. Among the various projections or truncated 

 pieces of root large quantities of clay and sand had effected 



