The Rev. W. Borlase relates, that great numbers of subterranean 

 trees were found on the shore at Mount's Bay, Cornwall. These tree* 

 were very large, and appeared to be oaks, hazel, and willow trees 

 they were found three hundred yards below full sea mark ; and when 

 the tide is in, have at least twelve feet of water above them. This, 

 he thinks, confirms the tradition, already noticed, that St Michael's 

 Mount, now half a mile inclosed with the sea, when the tide is in, 

 stood formerly in a wood*. 



Sir John Hill states, that he often met with pieces of wood, very 

 little altered from their original state, in strata of loam among gra- 

 ve}; and even in solid beds of stone, particularly at the great quar- 

 ry^ at Mr. Allen's, near Bath, in which he saw part of an elm, of 

 more than four feet in length, which was still soft enough to be* 

 easily pierced with a knife -f. 



When the mind is engaged in the consideration of a subject, so 

 interesting as that to which I am endeavouring to attract your at 

 tention ; it is highly gratifying to find, that necessary investigations 

 have been made by men, whose learning and abilities have engaged 

 our respect. The following observations, independent of the im- 

 portance they derive from their authors, are in themselves so highly 

 interesting, that no apology can be necessary for laying them be- 

 fore you, almost unaltered in their form. 



In September, 1796, the Right Honourable the President of 

 the Royal Society, accompanied by Dr. Joseph Correa de Serra, 

 went to Sutton, in Lincolnshire, to examine the nature and ex- 

 tent of certain islets of moor, chiefly composed of decayed trees, 

 situated along that coast, and visible only in the lowest ebbs of the 

 year. 



These islets, according to the most accurate information, extend 

 at least twelve miles in length, and about a mile in breadth, oppo- 

 site to Sutton Shore ; and consist almost entirely of roots, trunks, 

 branches, and leaves of trees and shrubs, intermixed with some 



* Philos. Transact, vol. i. part 1. t Natural History of Fossils, p. 638. 



