176 THE FORESTS OF ENGLAND. 



of their fronts shows how well they are washed by every 

 tide ; and a comparison of the initials and their dates, 

 with which enlightened Englishmen delight to adorn all 

 places of public resort, might almost enable one to measure 

 the yearly extent of old Ocean's victory. Farther on there 

 are fields, which old people will tell you once grew good 

 crops, now, alas ! sanded up, and producing little but the 

 heath and the wild rose. In walking along the shore, 

 you soon reach even more conclusive evidence of the 

 encroachments of the sea in a strong stone-wall on the 

 beach fenced by bundles of fagots. The land here, to 

 a considerable extent, is under the level of the sea; 

 and but for this same wall or 'Dutch Dyke,' it would 

 be constantly overflowed. The yearly charge of main- 

 taining this .bulwark against the sea is considerable, and 

 is defrayed by the Corporation of Liverpool. The ground 

 thus under the level of the sea is known as the Leasowe 

 (low flat plain) ; on its margin, near the sea, is Leasowe 

 Castle, the seat of Sir Edward Cust ; and within a short 

 distance of the castle stands the new lighthouse, which 

 forms one of the chain of lighthouses along the coast from 

 Liverpool to Holyhead. The old lighthouse stood at a 

 point which is now 450 yards below high- water mark. 

 Around the lighthouse the remains of a submarine forest 

 are to be seen at low-water. The Rev. Dr Hume of 

 Liverpool, an accurate scientific observer, states : On 

 this part of the coast, in March 1849, I reckoned at low 

 tide no fewer than five sea-margins, the present and four 

 others, all of which are indicated here ; but from the two 

 lowest strata the marks of cultivation and of vegetation 

 had disappeared. In the third I reckoned 538 stumps of 

 trees, all growing in situ, and they had evidently been 

 planted by the hand of man ; for they were in lines, the 

 distance of five yards being between each. The larger 

 stumps were towards the Dee, the smaller in the direction 

 of the lighthouse and the Mersey. One stump of ' bog- 

 fir/ 43 yards below high -water mark, had the bark on, as 

 had several others ; and in it there was the mark of an 



