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SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



(Ohenopodium mnrnh); the lesser wart-cress 

 (SeneUera didyma), one of the more local of the 

 Cruciferae, and differing from the common wart- 

 cress or swine's-cress in the form of the fruit ; as 

 well as Geranium, pusillum, the' small-flowered 

 crane's-bill, and the pale, dingy yellow blossoms of 

 the evil-smelling henbane (Ht/oscijamus niger), and 

 other characteristic plants. 



Arriving at Dove Point, one is at once struck by 

 the black appearance of the soil on the shore, which 

 ■contrasts strongly with the glistening whiteness of 

 the aeolian drift-sand, over which we have been 

 plodding. Indeed, it is from this peculiarity that 

 the point takes its name, the word Dove being 

 derived from the old Celtic Dhuv, signifying blackt 

 Descending upon the beach a very little careful 

 examination will suffice to show that these black 

 bands running parallel with the coastline are none 

 other than ancient land surfaces, three of which 

 -are just here discernible. In the upper bed of 

 black sandy soil which is thickly penetrated with 

 £brous roots and lies close under the base of the 

 -difis, have been found traces of evident cultiva- 

 tion, but the two lower strata are plainly the 

 remains of former forests, the whole soil consisting 

 of a peaty mass of roots and vegetable fibre, in 

 which fallen timber and stumps of trees, many of 

 them still where grown, form a striking feature. 

 Of these last-named beds the upper one is some 

 3ft. in thickness, and forms the greater part of the 

 forest now visible. The lower bed must be sought 

 further seawards, having been much denuded in 

 recent years by the action of the sea. The latter 

 is only about one-third the depth of the middle 

 l)ed, and of almost similar thickness to the upper 

 soil bed. 



The remains of the largest boles of trees are 

 found in the middle, or upper forest seam, and 

 are of oak, which trees appear to be most 

 numerous, but firs, birch, elm, alder and others, 

 ■occur in considerable quantities. A short distance 

 ■beyond the Point can be seen a roadway or canal, 

 which has the appearance of having been cut 

 through the peat at a comparatively recent period. 

 Progressing still further in the same direction, one 

 cannot fail to observe that the tree stumps become 

 smaller as one journeys eastward, but are both more 

 numerous and more regularly distributed than at 

 Dove Point, whilst the three distinct surfaces pre- 

 sented farther back are no longer to be traced. 



Not only, however, has the sea eroded the under 

 forest bed, but the whole coastline has been and is 

 still being gradually eaten away by the horizontal 

 action of the waves ; many yards annually disap- 

 pearing. This is well shown by an erection on 

 the shore, which is in reality a sewer-ventilating 

 shaft, that was a few years ago sunk some distance 

 inland, but within the last five or six years the 

 intervening cliffs have been washed away, thus 

 leaving the block of masonry standing like a tower 

 on the sands. Within the memory of living 

 persons, the land extended fully half a mile further 

 out to sea, and not long since were to be seen at 



very low tides a portion of an old burial place and 

 foundations of some of the houses of the ancient 

 village of Meols, now scattered amongst the shoals 

 and sandbanks which constitute this coast such a 

 terror to mariners during a north-westerly gale. 

 How far seawards this ancient wood formerly ex- 

 tended it is impossible to say, but excavations at 

 various places inland have demonstrated the fact 

 that what to the casual observer may appear to be 

 the remains of a thin belt of woodland bordering a 

 plain, now strikingly devoid of timber, is in truth 

 but a small exposed portion of an immense forest 

 which at one time probably stretched north and 

 south from near Blackpool to the River Mersey, 

 and from far eastwards of the present city of Liver- 

 pool to the River Dee. The upper forest bed is 

 well exposed at the mouth of the Alt in Lancashire, 

 and one or more of these ancient surfaces have 

 been penetrated when boring and excavating opera- 

 tions have been carried out at Birkdale, Liverpool, 

 Birkenhead, Hoylake, and other places. During 

 the construction of the Birkenhead " Great Float," 

 in rSsS, the lowest of the seams exposed at Dove 

 Point yielded a human skull as well as remains of 

 Bos primigeniiis, Bos longifrons, and other 

 animals. In excavating for the foundation of the 

 present Liverpool Custom House, still further 

 remains of the ancient short-horned ox were found, 

 together with horns and bones of the red-deer 

 (Cervus elaphus), and other early denizens of our 

 forests and brakes. Equally interesting discoveries 

 have been recorded from the Wirral coast. Fine 

 antlers of the red-deer and a beautifully preserved 

 skull of an ancient ox from these beds until qyite 

 lately graced the hall of Leasowe Castle close by, 

 at that time the property and Cheshire seat of Sir 

 Charles Cust, Bart. Although -the halcyon days 

 of exciting finds are now past, it is no uncommon 

 occurrence to pick up teeth of deer and oxen which 

 become scattered along the coast with the disin- 

 tegration of the peat by the sea. These may be 

 picked up about a recent high-water mark, or fished 

 from one of the many little pools which gather in 

 the depressions amongst the forest debris. 



Of course, the submerged forest at Meols is not 

 unique of its kind, even in Britain, but it is none 

 the less interesting on that account. Traces of 

 such occur on the coasts of Norfolk, Lincoln, Devon 

 and Cornwall, and like the raised beaches of the 

 Isle of Portland in Dorset, and Kemp Town, 

 Brighton, serve to remind us that the earth is never 

 still. " The everlasting hills " and " the stable 

 land " may be poetic, but they have no place in 

 nature, where nothing is at rest, and where no 

 form is permanent. Indeed, the level of the ever- 

 moving sea, which we note even now creeping 

 swiftly landwards and already hiding the lower 

 portions of our forest, is far more constant through 

 the long vista of time than is that of the " terra 

 firma " upon which we stand. The surface of our 

 globe is always moving, rising here and sinking 

 there. At the present time this " secular rising," 

 as it is termed, is taking place throughout the 



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