59^ Siilmarine Forejl on the IBaJl Coajl of En^land^ 



on their refpeftive, fides of the fame narrow fea. Thefe twa 

 countries are certainly coeval ; and whatever proves tha^ 

 Maritime Flanders has been for many ages out of the fea, 

 muft, in my opinion, prove aifo that the foreft we are fpeak- 

 ing of was long before that time deftroyed and buried under 

 a firatiim of foil. Now it feems proved from hiftorical re- 

 cords, carefully collefted by feveral learned members of the 

 BrufTels Academy, that no material change has happened to 

 the lowermoft part of Maritime Flanders during the perio4 

 of the laft tv/o thoufand years *. 



I am therefore inclined to fuppofe the original cataftrophe 

 which buried this foreft to be of very ancient date ; but I 

 fufpecl the inroad of the fea, which uncovered the decayed 

 trees of the iilands of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. 

 The ftatc of the leaves and of the timber, and alfo the tra- 

 dition of the neighbourinoj people, concur to ftrengthen this 

 fufpicion. r. eaves, and other delicate parts of plants, though 

 they may be long prcfcrved in a fubterraneous fituation, can- 

 not remain uninjured when cxpofed to the a£lion of the 

 waves and of the air. The people of the country believe 

 that their parifli-church once flood on the fpot where the 

 jflets now are, and was fubmergcd by the inroads of the fea, 

 and that at low water their anceftors could even difcover 

 its ruins ; that their prefent church was built to fupply the 

 place of that which the waves wallied away, and that even 

 their prefent clock belonged to the old church. So many 

 concomitant circumftanees, though weak teftimonies, incline 

 nie to believe *heir report ; and to fuppofe that fome of the 

 ftormy inundations of the North Sea, which in thefe laft 

 centuries have waflied away fuch large trails of land on its 

 llaores, took away a foil relling on ck\y, and at lall uncovered 

 the trees which are the fubjeft of this paper. 



the Belgic ridge. The petrified fruits of Sliepi:jf:y, and other imprcflions of 

 tropical plants on this fide of the water, are well known. 



* Vide feveral papers in the Bruffcls Memoirs ; alfo Journ. Phyf. 

 VoL XXXI V. p. 4S. 



J 



