64 



all likelihood the deluge laid along, and found growing on or near 

 the places where we now find them; and if they grew near the- 

 places where they are found, as there are many signs they did, then 

 there is no question but it was terra firma before that deluge*. 



In the fenny tract, called the Isle of Axholme, lying partly in Lin- 

 colnshire, and partly in Yorkshire, and extending a considerable way, 

 are also found vast numbers of oak, fir, and other trees, lying some- 

 what above three feet in depth; and, near to them, their roots, which 

 do still stand, as they grew, in firm earth below the rnoorf . Mr. 

 Dugdal, in his book of Draining the Fens in England, concludes the 

 cause thereof to have been " the muddiness of the constant tides, 

 which flowing up Humber into Trent, left, in time, so much filth, as 

 to obstruct the currents of Idle, Done, and other rivers, which thence 

 flowed back, and overwhelmed that flat country." 



Dr. Richardson, speaking of subterranean trees dug up at Youle, 

 in Yorkshire, says : 



" Some of these trees are so large, that they are used for timber 

 in building houses, which is said to be more durable than oak itself. 

 The country people hereabout call them fir-wood. The bate or 

 texture of this wood is the same with fir, easily splitting : if burnt 

 it sends out the same resinous smell, and it affords the same coal. 

 The branches do generally grow in circles, as the knots do yet tes- 

 tify : the knots do easily part from the rest of the wood, as is usual 

 in fir-wood. The straightness and length of these trees, are also a 

 presumption, that they must be such ; if one consider, that some of 

 these are nigh an hundred feet long ; and at the bottom, not much 

 above a foot in diameter. Their tops lay all one way, (viz.) with 

 the current of the water. There are also oaks found there, though 

 not in so great quantity. The vitriolic parts of the earth, in which 

 they have lain, hath given them a black tincture quite through : 



* Mona Antiqua Restaurata, Henry Rowlands, sect. iii. p. 8, 

 t Philos. Transact, vol. viii. No. 69. 



