101 



a lodgment, and small portions of sea-weed were also at- 

 tached to it. I am not aware that any other instance was 

 noticed of a root apparently occupying the position where it 

 had sent forth a stem, and thrown out branches and leaves : 

 but in this instance it appears to me that there could 

 be no doubt on the matter. It is not a little extra- 

 ordinary, however, to find even a single root main- 

 taining its anchorage, with such a strain of sea upon its 

 tiny cables, where the material in which it is imbedded is 

 liable to constant change, and where even its own substance 

 is being daily rotted and frittered away. 



Passing on alongthe sands, other indications of vegetable 

 matter began to exhibit themselves. In some instances the 

 clayey substance seemed to be impregnated with decayed vege- 

 table matter; so that occasionally an ordinary observer could 

 hardly tell whether a certain mass was merely a piece of black- 

 ened loam, or a portion of rotten wood, like what one some- 

 times sees in a manure heap, and about the consistency of 

 cheese. Passing still westward, the vegetable appearances be- 

 came more frequent and more distinct ; the whole area pre- 

 sented a carboniferous appearance, so that one could have pre- 

 dicted the existence of vegetable matter, even without the find- 

 ing of a single specimen. But specimens existed in abundance ; 

 and there is little doubt that a common cart could have 

 been filled with wood, had there been time or opportunity 

 for its collection. In one part, the woody matter stood 

 out in relief, like the veins of harder material, on the face 

 of a weather-worn stone, suggesting the idea that it had 

 been held in solution, and infiltrated into the cracks of the 

 sand. In another, the margin of a streamlet, from four to 

 six inches high, appeared to be a piece of darkened lias, 

 but, on breaking it with the hand, it proved to be a portion 

 of wood, very soft, and probably expanded, and holding the 

 water like a sponge. Numerous instances occurred in 

 which the timber so found admitted of the finger being 



