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tops : And so great is the store of these subterraneans, 

 as the inhabitants have for divers years carried away 

 above 2000 cart-loads yearly: See Dugdal's History 

 of Draining. This might be of good use for the like 

 detections in Essex, Lincolnshire, and places either 

 low situate, or adjacent to the sea ; also at Binfield 

 Heath in Kent, &c. These trees were (some think) 

 carried away in times past, by some accident of in- 

 undation, or by waters undermining the ground, till 

 their own weight, and the winds bow'd them down, 

 and overwhelm'd them in the mud : For 'tis observ'd, 

 that these trees are no where found so frequently, as 

 in boggy places ; but that the burning of these trees 

 so very bright, should be an argument they were fir, 

 is not necessary, since the bituminous quality of such 

 earth, may have imparted it to them ; and Camden 

 denies them to be fir-trees ; suggesting the query ; 

 whether there may not possibly grow trees even under 

 the ground, as well as other things ? Theophrastus 

 indeed, 1. iv. c. 8. speaks of whole woods ; bays and 

 olives, bearing fruit ; and that of some oaks bearing 

 acorns, and those even under the sea ; which was so 

 full of plants and other trees, as ('tis said) Alexander's 

 forces sailing to the Indies, were much hindred by 

 them. There are in Cumberland, on the sea-shore, 

 trees sometimes discover'd at low-water, and at other 

 times that lie buried in the sand ; and in other mossie 

 places of that county, 'tis reported, the people fre- 

 quently dig up the bodies of vast trees without boughs, 

 and that by direction of the dew alone in Summer ; 

 for they observe it never lies upon that part under 

 which those trees are interr'd. These particulars I 

 find noted by the ingenious author of the Britannia 

 Baconica. How vast a forest, and what goodly trees 



