380 Mr. Horner on the Geology of the 



this coast, viz. the remains of a forest considerably below the level 

 of the sea, and now only to be seen at low water.* 



The first appearance of this submarine forest is opposite Stolford, 

 about a quarter of a mile eastward of the place where a small brook 

 runs into the sea. From this point to the mouth of the Parret there 

 is a flat shore, which at low water is covered with a deep and 

 almost fluid mud. The adjoining land is protected from the sea 

 by a high bank of pebbles, composed almost entirely of the lyas 

 limestone, and which increases in height near the place where the 

 forest begins. Here there are seen at intervals patches of various 

 dimensions raised six or eight inches above the sand, and upon 

 digging into these they are found to consist of a dark brown matter 

 resembling peat or decayed vegetable substances, mixed with a plant 

 in which the structure is entire, with twigs and small branches of 

 wood in a soft state, and containing here and there a few nuts. 

 This brown matter rests upon a light blue very stiff" and unctuous 

 clay, and is of various thickness ; in general from a foot to eighteen 

 inches, but in one place I observed it two feet and a half without 

 coming to the blue clay. Trunks of trees of a very large size are 

 found at different intervals surrounded by the brown matter, and 

 with their roots diverging as they grow, and fixed in the blue clay. 

 The smaller twigs and branches in the brown matter, which look 

 like the roots of underwood, also penetrate the blue clay, and the 

 clay contains a great deal of that particular plant which appears the 

 least decayed in the brown matter. Besides the trunks there are 

 stems of great trees sunk in the brown matter and strewed about, 

 but without any uniformity of direction : some of these I found 20 

 feet long, and many of them had lateral branches attached to them. 



* This submarine forest was fixst pointed out to mc by my friend Thomas Poole, Esq. 

 «f Aether Stowej. 



