36 BERTHA'S VISIT TO HER 



In a well that was digging in the neighbouring 

 village of Sutton, a similar stratum of decayed 

 wood and leaves had been cut through at the 

 depth of sixteen feet, and, therefore, very nearly at 

 the same leveFwith that of the islets : it extends 

 through all the eastern parts of Lincolnshire, 

 and has been traced as far as Peterborough, 

 more than fifty miles to the south-west of Sutton. 

 The fisherman informed him that islets of the 

 same kind are found as far north as Grimsby, 

 on the H umber ; so that this great subterraneous 

 forest was nearly eighty miles in length ; and as 

 there can be little doubt of the woody islets along 

 the coast having been a continuation of it, the 

 breadth must also have been considerable. 



Dr. Correa de Serra, who wrote this account, 

 says that a most exact resemblance exists be- 

 tween maritime Flanders and the opposite low 

 coast of England, both in elevation above the 

 sea, and in the internal structure and arrange- 

 ment of their soil. They contain similar organic 

 remains of marine animals, as well as of tropical 

 plants ; and they each have a stratum of de- 

 cayed trees and compressed vegetable matter 

 below the present level of the sea. He, there- 

 fore, concludes that the two countries were once 

 continuous ; and instead of supposing that the 

 sea is now higher than formerly, he gives it as 

 his opinion, that this part of the earth's surface 

 has sunk below its ancient level. That the epoch 



