BURIED FORESTS. 177 



iron staple about half an inch in diameter, the iron gone, 

 but the rust still there. Many other stumps had been 

 removed, which the country people dried to heat their 

 ovens ; and in some places the trees are so decayed that 

 the wood may be cut through with a spade like a piece of 

 cheese.' " 



Like phenomena of submerged forests are not unknown 

 elsewhere. Such have been seen on the coast of Cornwall. 

 There is a submarine forest in Orkney, and there are two 

 on the coast of Fife, one on the shore of the Tay, the others 

 on the shore of the Firth of Forth ; they are covered with 

 the tide at high water to the depth of about ten feet, and 

 consist of roots of trees embedded in peat moss, resting 

 upon a bed of clay. Dr Fleming, once minister of the 

 parish in which one of these is situated, afterwards pro- 

 fessor in King's College, Aberdeen, and subsequently pro- 

 fessor of Natural History in the Free Church College, 

 Edinburgh, after a careful examination of these forests 

 and of the various explanations given by geologists of 

 similar forests on the coasts of Lincolnshire and Cornwall, 

 proposed the following theory as adequate to account for all 

 that is known of them : 



" If we suppose a lake situate near the sea-shore, and 

 having its outlet elevated a few feet above the rise of the 

 tide, we have the first condition requisite for the produc- 

 tion of a submarine forest; if we now suppose that by 

 means of mud carried in by the rivulets, and the growth 

 of acquatic plants, this lake has become a marsh, and a 

 stratum of vegetable matter formed on the surface of 

 sufficient density to support trees, we arrive at the second 

 condition which is requisite. Suppose a marsh in this 

 condition to have the level of its outlet lowered, or rather 

 to have its sea-ward barrier removed, what consequences 

 would follow ? The extremities of the strata, now exposed 

 to the sea, would at every ebb-tide be left dry to a depth 

 equal to the fall of the tide. Much water, formerly pre- 

 vented from escaping by the altitude of the outlet, would 



N 



