484 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [ANNO 1 7Qg. 



the actual distance. Some of the Roman roads constructed by order of Augustus, 

 under Agrippa's administration, leading to the maritime towns of Belgium, still 

 exist, and reach the present shore.* The descriptions which Roman authors have 

 left us, of the coasts, ports, and mouths of rivers, on both sides of the North Sea, 

 agree in general with their present state ; except in the places ravaged by the inroads 

 of this sea, more apt, from its form, to destroy the surrounding countries, than to 

 increase them. 



An exact resemblance exists between maritime Flanders and the opposite low 

 coast of England, both in point of elevation above the sea, and of internal struc- 

 ture and arrangement of their soils. On both sides, strata of clay, silt, and sand, 

 often mixed with decayed vegetables, are found near the surface; and in both, 

 these superior materials cover a very deep stratum of bluish or dark-coloured clay, 

 unmixed with extraneous bodies. On both sides, they are the lowermost part of 

 the soil, existing between the ridges of high lands,-}- on their respective sides of 

 the same narrow sea. These two countries are certainly coeval; and whatever 

 proves that maritime Flanders has been for many ages out of the sea, must, in my 

 opinion, prove also, that the forest we are speaking of was long before that time 

 destroyed, and buried under a stratum of soil. Now it seems proved, from his- 

 torical records, carefully collected by several learned members of the Brussels 

 Academy, that no material change has happened to the lowermost part of maritime 

 Flanders, during the period of the last 1000 years. J 



I am therefore inclined to suppose the original catastrophe which buried this 

 forest, to be of a very ancient date; but I suspect the inroad of the sea which un- 

 covered the decayed trees of the islets of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. The 

 state of the leaves and of the timber, and also the tradition of the neighbouring people, 

 concur to strengthen this suspicion. Leaves and other delicate parts of plants, 

 though they may be long preserved in a subterraneous situation, cannot remain un- 

 injured, when exposed to the action of the waves and of the air. The people of 

 the country believe, that their parish church once stood on the spot where the islets 

 now are, and was submerged by the inroads of the sea; that, at* very low water, 

 their ancestors could even discern its ruins; that their present church was built to 

 supply the place of that which the waves washed away; and that even their present 

 clock belonged to the old church. So many concomitant, though weak testimo- 

 nies, incline me to believe their report, and to suppose that some of the stormy 

 inundations of the North Sea, which in these last centuries have washed away such 

 large tracts of land on its shores, took away a soil resting on clay, and at last un- 

 covered the trees which are the subject of this paper. 



* Nicol. Bergier. Hist, des grands Chemins des Romains. E4 de Bruxelles. vol. 2, p. 109. — Orig. 



+ These ridges of high lands, both on the British and Belgic side, must be very similar to each other, 

 since they both contain parts of tropical plants in a fossil state. Cocoa nuts, and fruits of the areca, are 

 found in the Belgic ridge. The petrified fruits of Sheppey, and other impressions of tropical plants, on 



this side of the water, are well known. X Vide several papers in the Brussels Memoires j also Journ. 



de Pbys. t. 34, p. 401.— Orig. 



