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4l4 



Ch. XLVL] 



IN SUBAQUEOUS DEPOSITS. 



529 



atmospliere which sometimes accompany earthquakes and 

 volcanic eruptions. 



It will appear from these observations that, although the 

 remains of terrestrial vegetation^ borne down by aqueous 

 causes from the land^ are chiefly deposited at the bottom of 



mo 



may become 



imbedded in any marine formation^ or may sink down. 



bottom of unfathomable 

 bhout intermixture of oi 



sub- 



and there accumulate without 



stances. 



It may be asked, whether we have any data for inferring 



that the remains of a considerable proportion of the existing 

 species of plants will be permanently preserved, so as to be 

 hereafter recognisable, supposing the strata now in progress 

 to be at some future period upraised ? To this enquiry it 

 may be answered, that there are no reasons for expecting 

 that more than a small number of the plants now flourishing 

 in the globe will become fossilised ; since the entire habita- 

 tions of a great number of them are remote from lakes and 

 seas, and even where they grow near to large bodies of water, 

 the circumstances are quite accidental and partial which 

 favour the imbedding and conservation of vegetable remains. 

 Suhmarine forest on coast of Hants. — Allusion has been 

 made in the first volume, p. 544, to several localities on the 

 British shores in which the remains of trees are seen in a 

 vertical position submerged beneath the mean level of the 

 sea, often with their roots attached. In many instances it 

 seems scarcely possible to explain their submergence without 

 assuming a change to have taken place in the relative level 

 of land and sea. But such an hypothesis does not seem 

 necessary in the case about to be described. My friend, Arch- 

 deacon Harris, discovered, in 1831, evident traces of a fir- 

 wood beneath the mean level of the sea, at Bournemouth, in 

 Hampshire, the formation having been laid open during a 

 low spring tide. It is situated between the beach and a bar 

 of sand about 200 yards off, and extends 50 yards along the 

 shore, cropping out from beneath a bed of sand and shingle. 

 It also lies in the direct line of the Bournemouth Yalley, from 



VOL. II. 



M M 



