Geology. 495 
h 
timated with any degree of accuracy. But some idea of it may be 
obtained by noticing the phenomena of the cedar swamps where buried 
timber is dug or mined. In these swamps, and in the salt marshes 
near them, underneath the standing trees, or under the stumps in the 
roots run near the surface, so that it might be supposed the mud had 
settled with them, were it not for the fact that, when cedar grows where 
the mud is shallow, so that its roots reach hard bottom, its wood is unfit 
for timber, the grain or fibres being so interlocked that it will not split 
freely. Such is found to be the case in the buried timber; the bottom 
layer, as it is called, is worthless. From this the inference is conclu- 
Sive that the hard ground was above tide level when those trees grew. 
Large stumps are, frequently found standing directly on other large 
Mr. Thomas Shourds, of Hancock’s Bridge, Salem County, informed 
j Alloways 
g 
have been when they were set. On the opposite bank of the creek 
Stconp Szrms, Vol. XXI, No. 63.—May, 1856. 
