Submarine Foreji on the Eajl Coaji of England. 287 

 perhaps, but which do not appear to me the lefs to merit 

 the attention of the learned. 



Philofophers, in my opinion, will find fome curious obfer- 

 vations on this fubjeft alfo in my Inquiries into the Propa- 

 gation of Sound in different Solid as ivell as Fluid Mediums ; 

 which will foon appear. 



XII. On a Submarine Forejl on the Eafi Coafl of England. 

 By Joseph Correa de Serra, LL.D. F. R. S. and 

 A.S.* 



I 



N Geology, more perhaps than in any other branch of 

 Natural HiRory, there exifts a neceffity of ftridly feparating 

 the fafts obferved from the ideas which, in order to explain 

 them, may occur to the mind of the obferver. In the pre- 

 fent ftate of the fcience, every well afcertained faft increafes 

 our ftill narrow^ ftock of real knowledge; when on the 

 contrary, the reafonings we are enabled to make are at befl 

 but ingenious guefTes, which too often bias and miflead the 

 judgement. I (hall, therefore, endeavour in this paper to 

 give, firft, a mere defcriplion of the objeft unmixed with 

 any fyftematical ideas, and (hall afterwards offer fuch con- 

 jciSiircs on its caufes as feem to me to bp fairly grounded 

 on obfervation. 



Jt was a common report in Lincolnfliire, that a large ex- 

 tent of iflcts of moor fituated along its coaft, and vifible 

 only in the loweft ebbs of the year, was chiefly compofcd of 

 decayed trees. Thefe illets arc marked in Mitchell's chart 

 of that coaft by the name of clajy huts; and tlie village of 

 Huttofi, oppofite to which they Drincipally lie, feems to have 

 derived its name from them. Wi the month of September 

 1796 I went to Sutton, on the coaft of Lincolnfliirc, in 

 the company of the Right Hon. the Prefident of the Royal 

 Society, in order to examine their nature and extent. The 



* Ff«m the Philofojilvcal Tranfadtions, 1799. 



6 19th 



