UNCLE IN ENGLAND. J37 



at which this catastrophe took place, must have 

 been in a very remote age, he thinks may be 

 proved from the sixteen feet bed of soil, which 

 now covers the submerged forest ; and because 

 it appears from historical records in the Academy 

 of Brussels, that no change of that kind has hap- 

 pened in Flanders for more than two thousand 

 years. 



But the uncovering of the woody stratum in 

 the Sutton islets by the action of the sea, he 

 refers to a comparatively recent date. The 

 people have a tradition that their parish church 

 once stood on the spot where those islets are 

 now ; and it is very probable that before the 

 skilful embankments were made which at present 

 restrain the stormy inundations of the North 

 Sea, the soil was gradually washed away by the 

 waves, and the trees were thus left exposed. 



When we had done reading the above, my 

 uncle told us that he had himself visited the 

 little hamlet of Sutton. The tides unfortunately 

 were not low enough to expose the islets^ or 

 rather the sandbanks, which the Doctor men- 

 tions ; but he saw a great number of the stumps 

 and roots of the trees, which the country people 

 had obtained at favourable opportunities. One 

 fine oak stem had just been drawn on shore : 

 it measured forty feet in length, and five feet in 

 circumference ; and the wood, though rather soft 

 on the outside ; was sound within, though all 



VOL, III. E 



