290 On a Submarine Fore/l 



In order to afcertain the courfe of this fubterraneous (Ira- 

 turn of decayed vegetables, Sir Jofeph Banks diredled a 

 boring to be made in the fields belonging to the Royal So- 

 ciety in the parifli of Mablethorpe. Moor of a fimilar nature 

 to thatofSearby's well^ and the iflets, was found, very nearly 

 on the fame level, about four feet thick, and under a foft 

 clay. 



The whole appearance of the rotten vegetables, we ob- 

 krved, perfectly refembles, according to the remark of Sir 

 Jofeph Banks, the moor which, in Blankeney Fen and in 

 other parts of the Eaft Fen in Lincolnfhire, is thrown up 

 in the making of banks-; barks, like thofe of the birch-tree, 

 being there alfo abundantly found. The moor extends over 

 all the Lincolnfliire fens, and has been traced as far as Pe- 

 terborough, more than fixty miles to the fouth of Sutton*. 

 On the north fide, the moory iflets, according to the fiflier- 

 men, extend as far as Grimfby, fituated on the fouth fide 

 the Humber: and it is a remarkable circumfi:ance, that in 

 the larsre trafts of low land which lie on the fouth banks of 

 that river, a little above its mouth, there is a fubterraneous 

 ftratum of decayed trees and flirubs exadlly like thofe wc 

 obferved at Sutton; particularly at Axolme ifle, a trafl: of 

 ten miles in length by five in breadth ; and at Hatfield 

 Chace, which comprehends one hundred and eighty thou- 

 fand acres. Dugdale * had long ago made this obfervation 

 in the firft of thefe places ; and De la Pryme f in the fecond.. 

 The roots are there, likewife, ftanding in the places where, 

 they grew : the trunks lie proftrate. The woods are of the- 

 fame fpecies as at Sutton. Roots of aquatic plants and reed& 

 are likewife mixed with .them ; and they are covered by a 

 ftratum of fome yards of foil, the thicknefs of which, 

 though not afcertained with exaftnefs by the above-men- 

 tioned obfen'crs, we may eafily conceive to eorrefpond with, 

 what covers the ftratum of decayed v/ood at Sutton, by the 



* Hiftory of Embanking and Draining, chap, xxvii. 

 f Pliilofcphical Tranfatlions, vol. xxii. p. 9S0. 



