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trees lay all their length, about a yard from their great roots (unto 

 which they did most evidently belong, both by their situation, and 

 the sameness of the wood) with their tops commonly north-east ; 

 though indeed the smaller trees lie almost every way across those, 

 some above, some under ; a third part of all which are pitch trees, 

 commonly called firs, some of which have been found of thirty yards 

 length and above, and have been sold to make masts and keels of 

 ships. Oaks have been found of twenty, thirty, and thirty-five 

 yards long, yet wanting many yards at the small end. Some of 

 which have been sold for four, eight, ten, and fifteen pounds apiece ; 

 which are as black as ebony, and very lasting and durable in any 

 service that they are put unto. As for ashes, it is commonly ob- 

 served of them, that their constituent parts are so dissolved, that 

 they become as soft as earth, and are commonly cut in pieces by 

 the workmen's spades ; and, as soon as flung up into the open air, 

 fall away into dust; but all the rest, even the willows themselves, 

 which are softer than ashes, preserve their substance and texture, 

 he says, to this day. He adds, I have seen some pitch or fir trees, 

 that, as they have laid all along, after that they were fallen, have 

 struck up great branches from their sides, which have grown unto 

 the thickness and height of considerable trees. 



Many of those trees, he observes, of all sorts, have been burnt; 

 but especially the pitch or fir trees ; some quite through, and some 

 all on a side ; some have been found chopped and squared, some 

 bored through, other some half riven, with great wooden^vedges and 

 stones in them, and broken axe heads, somewhat like sacrificing 

 axes in shape : and all this in such places, and at such depths, as, 

 could never be opened from the destruction of this forest, until the 

 time of the drainage. Near a great rock, in the parish of Hatfield, 

 were found eight or nine coins, of some of the Roman emperors, but 

 exceedingly consumed and defaced with time. It is very observa- 

 ble, he adds, that upon the confines of this low country, between 



