071 the Erji Coaji of Englani, - ^9 1 



clrcumftances of the roots being (according to Mr. Richard- 

 fon's obfervations *) only vifible when the water is low, 

 where a channel was cut, which has left them uncovered. 



Little doubt can be entertained of the moory iflets of 



Sutton being a part of this extenfive and fubterraneous fira- 



tum, which, by fome inroad of the fea, has there been 



ftripped of its covering of foil. The identity of the levels ; 



that of thefpecies of trees; the roots of thefe affixed, in both, 



to the foil where they grew ; and, above all, the flattened 



(hape of the trunks, branches, and roots found in the itlets 



(which can only be accounted for by the heavy prelTure of a 



fuperinduced ftratum), are fufficient reafons for this opinion. 



Such a wide-lpread alfemblage of vegetcJDle ruins, lying 



almoft in the fame level, and that level generally under the 



common mark of low-water, muft naturally ftrike the ob- 



ferver, and give birth to the following queftions : 



1. What is the epoch of this deftruftion? 



2. By what agency was it effe6led ? 



In anfwer to thefe queftions, I will venture to fubmit the 

 following refleftions : 



The foffil remains of vegetables hitherto dug up in fo 

 many parts of the globe, are, on a clofe infpeaion, found to 

 belong to two different ftates of our planet. The parts of 

 vegeta°tion, and their impreffions, found in mountains of a 

 cotaceous, fchiftous, or even fometimes of a calcareous na- 

 ture, are chiefly of plants now exifting between the tropics, 

 which could neither have grown in the latitudes m which 

 they are dug up, nor have been carried and depofited there 

 by any of the aaing forces-under the prefent conftitution of 

 nature. The formation, indeed, of the very mountams 

 in which they are buried, and the nature and difpolition 

 of the materials which compofe them, are fuch as we can. 

 not account for by any aftions and re-a6lions which in the 

 aftual ftate of things take place on the furface of the earth. 



* Philosophical Tranfadions, vol, xix. p. ii%- 



U3 w-^ 



