SUBMARINE FORESTS. 



29 



mixed with raud, which intervenes between the slope of raud already 

 mentioned and the level of low tide. Beyond the stump first seen, 

 and extending to a depth of at least 30 to 35 feet below the level 

 of higli tide, other stumps were irregularly scattered as in an open 

 wood. The lowest stump seen was 135 paces beyond the first; 

 and between it and the water level there was a space of 170 paces 

 without stumps, but with scattered fragments of roots and tninks, 

 which may have belonged to rooted trees broken up and swept away 

 by the ice (Fig. 6). 



Fig. 6. — Submarine Fcyrest. — Fort Lavn-ence. 



[a) Marsh. (&) Soil with rooted stumps. (c) Mud and Stones. 



On digging under and around some of the stumps, they were 

 found to be rooted in a soil having all the characters of forest soil. 

 In one place it was a reddish sandy loam, like the ordinary upland 

 of Fort Lawrence : in another place it was a black vegetable soil 

 resting on a white sandy subsoil. Immediately over the soil were 

 the remains of a layer of tough bluish clay, with a few vegetable 

 fibres, apparently rootlets of grasses, which seemed to have been 

 the first layer of marsh mud deposited over the upland soil. All the 

 rootlets of the stumps were entire and covered with their bai'k, 

 and the appearances were perfectly conclusive as to their being 

 in the place of their growth (Fig. 7). 



Fig. 7. — Stump of Beech in the Submarine Forest. 



%^^Z~ 



[a] Mud. 



[h) Vegetable soil. (c) Loamy subsoil. 



Of thirty or forty stumps which I examined, the greater number 

 were pine [rinus strobiis), but a few were beech [Fagus ferruginea) ; 

 and it is worthy of note that these are trees characteristic rather of 

 dry upland than of low or swampy ground. The pine stumps were 

 quite sound, though somewhat softened and discoloured at the 

 surface. The beech, on the other hand, though retaining much 



