A HISTORY OF 



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 ob- 

 servable, that many of these trees have been 

 burnt, some quite through, some on one side, 

 Borne have been found chopped and squared, 

 others riven with great wooden wedges, all 

 sufficiently manifesting, that the country which 

 was deluged, had formerly been inhabited. 

 Near a great root of one tree were found 

 eight coins of the Roman emperors; and in 

 some places, the marks of the ridge and fur- 

 row were plainly perceivable, which testified 

 that the ground had formerly been patient 

 of cultivation. 



The learned naturalist who has given this 

 description," has pretty plainly evinced, that 

 this forest, in particular, must have been thus 

 levelled by the Romans ; and that the falling 

 of the trees must have contributed to the ac- 

 cumulation of the waters. " The Romans," 

 says he, " when the Britons fled, always pur- 

 sued them into the fortresses of low woods, 

 and miry forests : in these the wild natives 

 found shelter; and, when opportunity offered, 

 issued out, and fell upon their invaders with- 

 out mercy. In this manner, the Romans were 

 at length so harassed, that orders were issued 

 out for cutting down all the woods and forests 

 in Britain. In order to effect this, and destroy 

 the enemy the easier, they set fire to the 

 woods composed of pines, and other inflam- 

 mable timber, which spreading, the conflagra- 

 tion destroyed not only the forest, but infinite 

 numbers of the wretched inhabitants who had 

 taken shelter therein. When the pine-trees 

 had thus done what mischief they could, the 

 Romans then brought their army nearer, and, 

 with whole legions of the captive Britons, cut 

 down most of the trees that were yet left 

 standing ; leaving only here and there some 

 great trees untouched, as monuments of their 

 fury. These, unneedful of their labour, being 

 destitute of the support of the underwood, 

 and of their neighbouring trees, were easily 

 overthrown by the winds, and, without inter- 

 ruption, remained on the places where they 



Phil. Trans, vol. iv. part ii. p. 214. 



happened to fall. The forest thus fallen, must 

 necessarily have stopped up the currents, 

 both from land and sea; and turned into 

 great lakes, what were before but temporary 

 streams. The working of the waters here, 

 the consumption and decay of rotten boughs 

 and branches, and the vast increase of water- 

 moss which flourishes upon mars-hy grounds, 

 soon formed a covering over the trunks of the 

 fallen trees, and raised the earth several feet 

 above its former level. The earth thus every 

 day swelling, by a continual increase from 

 the sediment of the waters, and by the light- 

 ness of the vegetable substances of which it 

 was composed, soon overtopt the waters by 

 which this intumescence was at first effected ; 

 so that it entirely got rid of its inundations, 

 or only demanded a slight assistance from 

 man for that purpose." This may be the 

 origin of all bogs, which are formed by the 

 putrefaction of vegetable substances, mixed 

 with the mud and slime deposited by waters, 

 and at length acquiring a sufficient con- 

 sistency. 



From this we see what powerful effects the 

 sea is capable of producing upon its shores, 

 either by overflowing some or deserting 

 others; by altering the direction of these, 

 and rendering those craggy and precipitate, 

 which before were shelving. But the influence 

 it has upon these is nothing to that which it 

 has upon that great body of earth which forms 

 its bottom. lit is at the bottom of the sea 

 that the greatest wonders are performed, and 

 the most rapid changes are produced ; it is 

 there that the motion of the tides and the 

 currents have their whole force, and agitate 

 the substances of which their bed is com- 

 posed. But all these are almost wholly hid 

 from human curiosity : the miracles of the 

 deep are performed in secret; and we have 

 but little information from its abysses, except 

 what we receive by inspection at very shal- 

 low depths, or by the plummet, or from divers, 

 who are known to descend from twenty to 

 thirty fathom. 11 



The eye can reach but a very short way 

 into the depths of the sea; and that only 

 when its surface is glassy and serene. In 

 many seas it perceives nothing but a bright 



11 fhil. Trans, vol. iv. part ii. p. lP r ., 



