244 HISTORY OF 



constantly washing over them, have always left 

 some part of their substance behind, so as, by re- 

 peated alluvions, to work a bed of vegetable earth 

 over them, to the height at which he found it. 



The levels of Hatfield-Chace, in Yorkshire, a 

 tract of above eighteen thousand acres, which 

 was yearly overflown, was reduced to arable and 

 pasture land, by one Sir Cornelius Vermusden, 

 a Dutchman. At the bottom of this wide ex- 

 tent, are found millions of the roots and bodies 

 of trees, of such as this island either formerly did, 

 or does at present produce. The roots of all 

 stand in their proper postures, and by them, as 

 thick as ever they could grow, the respective 

 trunks of each, some above thirty yards long. 

 The oaks, some of which have been sold for 

 fifteen pounds a-piece, are as black as ebony, 

 very lasting, and close grained. The ash trees 

 are as soft as earth, and are commonly cut in 

 pieces by the workmen's spades, and as soon as 

 flung up into the open air, turn to dust. But all 

 the rest, even the willows themselves, which are 

 softer than the ash, preserve their substance and 

 texture to this very day. Some of the firs appear 

 to have vegetated, even after they were fallen, 

 and to have, from their branches, struck up large 

 trees, as great as the parent trunk. It is observ- 

 able, that many of these trees have been burnt, 

 some quite through, some on one side ; some have 

 been found chopped and squared, others riven 

 with great wooden wedges, all sufficiently mani- 

 festing, that the country which was deluged had 

 formerly been inhabited. Near a great root of 



