290 Dr. Fleming on a [April, 



further loss of -02 occurred ; but this loss was recovered after 

 the salt had stood a few minutes exposed to the air. The crys- 

 tals did not in the least lose their transparency ; they were then 

 dissolved, and solution of carbonate of potash, equivalent to 

 9-55 of dry carbonate, was added j the fluid portion was then 

 examined for alkali and earth, but showed no traces of either ; 

 the carbonate of strontian, when dry, weighed 10*3, and the 

 nitrate of potash 14*23 : its composition, therefore, is : 



Acid 7-55 or in 100 50-92 



Base 7-22 49-08 



14-77 100-00 



The small loss of water, amounting only to -07, cannot be con- 

 sidered otherwise than interposed water, and not in any way 

 attached to the formation of the crystal : the composition of 

 these salts may be considered as similar, excepting that the 

 octahedral variety contains no water of crystallization, and the 

 prismatic variety 27*8 per cent. 



Article XIV. 



On a Submarine Forest in the Frith of Tat/, with Observations on 

 the Formation of Submarine Forests in General. By John 

 Fleming, DD. FRS. Edin * 



The title which I have given to this paper, is, perhaps, faulty, 

 and apt to lead the imagination to expect a description of the 

 various forms of those sea-weeds which clothe the channel of the 

 deep ; — the arrangement of the species, as depending on the soil 

 and depth of water, the food which they yield to the various 

 creatures that browse upon them, and the protection they afford 

 to such as take refuge among their leaves and branches. Very 

 different, however, is the scene which T propose to describe, it 

 being a bed of peat-moss, covered by the sea at every full tide, 

 but indicating, by the appearances which it exhibits, that its 

 present low level is different from its original position. In other 

 words, it is a geological phenomenon, occurring in the Frith of 

 Tay, similar to the one observed on the Lincolnshire coast, 

 which, in 1796, was examined by the late Sir Joseph Banks and 

 Dr. Joseph Correa de Serra, and described by the latter in the 

 Transactions of the Royal Society of London for 1799, p. 145, 

 under the title, " On a Submarine Forest, on the East Coast of 

 England." I venture to prefix the same title to this paper, 



* From the Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, vol. ix. Part II. 



