CHAP, viii.] SUBMEKGED FORESTS. 251 



clay and the marine silt, at a time not later than that 

 marked by the layer of peat or vegetable soil in which 

 the prostrate trees are imbedded. 



These submerged forests are mere scraps, spared by 

 the waves, of an ancient growth of oak, ash, and yew, 

 extending in Somersetshire underneath the peat and 

 alluvium, and joining the great morasses of Glaston- 

 bury, Sedgemoor, and Athelney ; in which Neolithic im- 

 plements- have been met with by Mr. Stradling. The 

 discovery of flint-flakes and an old refuse-heap with 

 mammalian remains by Mr. Ellis, 1 in the submerged 

 forest of Barnstaple, affords the same kind of evidence 

 that man was living in Devonshire while the land stood 

 considerably higher than it does at the present time. 

 The bones of Celtic short-horn (.Bos longifrons), stag, 

 sheep, and goat, had evidently been accumulated around 

 the piles before they were in their present position 

 between high and low water mark, since such an accu- 

 mulation would have been impossible in a spot between 

 tides. In all probability the piles were driven into a 

 peaty morass on the land surface. 



Conclusive proof of submergence within compara- 

 tively modern times is brought forward by Mr. Pen- 

 gelly in his paper " On the Submerged Forest of Torbay." 

 The forest consists of a layer of peat, sometimes ten feet 

 thick, which sweeps upwards from low- water mark to 

 the higher grounds, the subaerial portion being covered 

 with three feet of loam. From it have been obtained 

 the stag, hog, horse, and Celtic short-horn, and antlers 

 of stag cut by man. Here, therefore, as well as in North 

 Devon and Somersetshire, man was in possession of the 



1 Int. Congress Prehist. Arckceol November vol. p. 89. See also 

 Mr. Townshend Hall, Quart. Journal Geol. Soc. Lond., June 1879. 



