166 Notices of Memoirs — Submerged Forest at Blackpool. 



attached, some of them sticking up above the clay, whilst others 

 were buried in it. This tree had fallen towards the east. 



Both the trunks and the soil, though carefully examined, failed to 

 disclose any traces or indications of ancient tools. Nor was the 

 search for bones, teeth, antlers, or, indeed, animal remains of any 

 kind, much more successful. The only relic of this nature which was 

 met with was a portion of a wing-case of some coleopterous insect, 

 and this the wind carried off almost as soon as it was found. 



Hazel nuts were extremely abundant — some entire, others broken, 

 and some obviously gnawed. A few appeared to have been flattened 

 as if from long -continued pressure. On digging into this mass and 

 exposing new surfaces, a very disagreeable odour was emitted, which 

 affected some of the party with nausea. 



Towards the uppermost or landward margin of the area, the clay 

 was of a bluish lead-colour, and traversed by a considerable number 

 of rectilineal furrows, which, at first, I was inclined to regard as 

 hollows out of which trunks of trees had been washed. This hypo- 

 thesis, however, appeared to be negatived by the facts that there 

 were no roots, or, indeed, vegetable debris of any kind, to be seen in 

 this part of the clay, and that the longest axis of every furrow was 

 at right angles to the water-line. Hence, to suppose that they had 

 formerly been occupied by trunks of trees, it would be necessary 

 to suppose also that all the latter had fallen in one and the same 

 direction ; but this, as has been stated, is by no means borne out by 

 the trunks remaining on the lower belt of the area, where they 

 appear to have fallen towards every point of the compass. In all 

 probability the furrows were scooped out by the waves, perhaps 

 during previous exposures. 



If a conjecture may be hazarded on the point, I would suggest 

 that the blue clay is perhaps the substratum on which the brown 

 clay lies, and that the latter, with its vegetable debris, has been 

 stripped off the landward belt of the old forest ground. 



It has been stated that the forest area reached the spring-tide 

 low- water line; hence, as the greatest tidal range on this coast 

 amounts to eighteen feet, we are warranted in inferring that the sub- 

 mergence amounted to eighteen feet as a minimum, even if we 

 suppose that some of the trees grew in a soil the surface of which 

 was not above the level of high water. There is satisfactory evidence 

 that in Torbay it was not less than forty feet, and that in Falmouth 

 harbour it amounted to at least sixty-seven feet.^ 



The means at my disposal did not allow me to bring away many 

 samples of the forest for careful examination at leisure, but shortly 

 after my visit I was so fortunate as to meet two gentlemen of Kings- 

 bridge, who, with Mr. Vivian, of Torquay, had also inspected tlie 

 forest, and on their return kindly sent me a hamper filled with 

 selected portions of the vegetable debris. 



To the same gentlemen I am indebted for a rather small horse- 

 chestnut, which, though perhaps somewhat bright, may be said to 



1 See Trans, of the Devon. Association, vol. i. pp. 131 and 134. 1868. 



