UNCLE IN ENGLAND. 35 



and if Caroline will fetch the volume for 1799, 

 she and you may read his account." 



I shall make a few extracts from it here for 

 Marianne's benefit. 



This gentleman, having learned that there 

 were several sunken islets along the coast where 

 the remains of trees could be seen, took the 

 opportunity of a very low tide, to land on one of 

 them, near the village of Sutton ; and he found 

 that it was a mass of roots, trunks, branches, and 

 leaves of trees, intermixed with aquatic plants. 

 An immense number of the stumps were still 

 standing on their roots, which, as well as the 

 bark of the branches, appeared almost as fresh 

 as if they had been just cut; and in the bark 

 of the birch, even the thin silvery membranes of 

 the outer skin were discernible. The wood, on 

 the contrary, was decomposed and soft : but he 

 understood that the people of the country had 

 often found very sound pieces of birch and oak 

 of which they could make use. He remarked, 

 that the trunks and thick branches were flat- 

 tened, as if they had lain under the pressure of 

 a heavy weight ; which is observable also in 

 the surturbrand or fossil wood of Iceland, and of 

 the Feroe Islands. Above the matted branches, 

 he found a thick bed of decayed leaves, which 

 were scarcely distinguishable at first ; but after 

 soaking a little in water, the leaves of holly and 

 of other indigenous trees were easily separated. 



