192 



HISTORY OF 



We have instances nearer honne of the same kind given us jn 

 the Pliiloso])hical Transaetions ; one of them by Mr Derharn. 

 An inundation of the sea, at Dagenham, in Essex, laying bare 

 a part of the adjacent pasture for above two hundred feet wide, 

 and, in some places, twenty deep, it discovered a number of 

 trees that had lain there for many ages before : these trees, by 

 lying long under ground, were become black and hard, and their- 

 fibres so tough, that one might as easily break a wire, as any of 

 them : they lay so thick in the place where they were found, 

 that in many parts he could step from one to another : he con- 

 ceived also, that not only all the adjacent marshes, for seveial 

 hundred acres, were covered underneath with such timber, but 

 also the marshes along the mouth of the Thames, for several 

 miles. The m.eeting with these trees at such depths, he as- 

 cribes to the sediment of the river, and the tides, which con- 

 stantly washing over them, have always left some part of their 

 substance behind, so as, by repeated alluvions, to work a bed of 

 vegetable eai'th over them, to the height at which he found it. 



The levels of Hatfield- Chace, in Yorkshire, a tract of above 

 eighteen thousand acres, which was yearly overlloAvn, was re- 

 duced to arable and pasture-land, by one Sir Cornelius Ver- 

 musden, a Dutchman. At the bottom of this wide extent, are 

 found millions of the roots and bodies of trees, of such as this 

 island either formerly did, or does at present, produce. The 

 roots of all stand in their proper postures ; and by them, as 

 thick as ever they could grow, the respective trunks of each, 

 some above thirty yards long. The oaks, some of which have 

 been sold for fifteen pounds a-piece, are as black as ebony, very 

 lasting, and close-grained. The ash.trees are as soft as earth, 

 and are commonly cut in pieces by the workmen's spades, and 

 as soon as Hung up into the open air, tm-n to dust. But all the 

 rest, even the willows themselves, which are softer than the ash, 

 preserve their substance and texture to this very day. Some of 

 the firs appear to have vegetated, even after they were fallen, and 

 to have, from their branches, struck up large trees, as great as the 

 parent trunk. It is observable, that many of these trees have been 

 burnt, some quite through, some on one side, some have been 

 found chopped and squared, others riven with great wooden 

 wedges ; all sufficiently manifesting, that the country which was 

 deluged had formerly been inhabited. Near a great root of one 



