VOL. LXXXIX.] PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. 4?Q 



124 Does not exist ; unless we admit a correction of + 1° 4' in ra of the Bri- 

 tish catalogue. 



138 Does not exist ; but, as there is no time in Flamsteed's observation of this 

 star, it is probably misplaced in the British catalogue, for there are several con- 

 siderable stars in the neighbourhood. 



Note to Triangulum. — d (l) "Nov. 2, 1798." This star, which has the time 

 and zenith distance in Flamsteed's observations doubtful, seems to be nearly in the 

 place where the British catalogue gives it. It should perhaps be a few minutes 

 more north. 



IX. On a Submarine Forest, on the East Coast of England. By Joseph Correa 

 de Serra, LL.D., F.R.S. andA.S. p. 145. 



It was a common report in Lincolnshire, that a large extent of islets of moor, 

 situated along its coast, and visible only in the lowest ebbs of the year, was chiefly 

 composed of decayed trees. These islets are marked in Mitchell's chart of that 

 coast, by the name of clay huts ; and the village of Huttoft, opposite to which 

 they principally lie, seems to have derived its name from them. In the month of 

 Sept. 1796, I went to Sutton, on the coast of Lincolnshire, in company with Sir 

 Jos. Banks, to examine their extent and nature. The 19th of the month, being 

 the first day after the equinoctial full moon, when the lowest ebbs were to be ex- 

 pected, we went in a boat, at half past 12 at noon, and soon after set foot upon 1 

 of the largest islets then appearing. Its exposed surface was about 30 yards long, 

 and 25 wide, when the tide was at the lowest. A great number of similar islets 

 were visible round us, chiefly to the eastward and southward ; and the fishermen, 

 whose authority on this point is very competent, say, that similar moors are to be 

 found along the whole coast, from Skegness to Grimsby, particularly off Addle- 

 thorpe and Mablethorpe. The channels dividing the islets were, at the time we 

 saw them, wide, and of various depths ; the islets themselves ranging generally from 

 east to west in their largest dimension. 



We visited them again in the ebbs of the 20th and 21st; and, though it generally 

 did not ebb so far as we expected, we could notwithstanding ascertain, that they 

 consisted almost entirely of roots, trunks, branches, and leaves of trees and shrubs, 

 intermixed with some leaves of aquatic plants. The remains of some of these trees 

 were still standing on their roots ; while the trunks of the greater part lay scattered 

 on the ground, in every possible direction. The bark of the trees and roots ap- 

 peared generally as fresh as when they were growing ; in that of the birches parti- 

 cularly, of which a great quantity was found, even the thin silvery membranes of 

 the outer skin were discernible. The timber of all kinds, on the contrary, was de- 

 composed and soft, in the greatest part of the trees; in some however it was firm, 

 especially in the knots. The people of the country have often found among them 

 very sound pieces of timber, fit to be employed for several economical purposes. 



The sorts of wood which are still distinguishable, are birch, fir, and oak. Other 



