310 Messrs. Buckland's and Conybeare's Observations on the 



15 or 20 feet, the roots (according to our own observations) standing in the 

 same upright position in which they grew, but the trunks lying prostrate ; and 

 together with them occur furze-bushes and hazle trees with their nuts. Reeds 

 and other palustrine plants appear to have grown among them. Trees have 

 been found buried in peat in the brick-yards at Bridgewater ; and in the 

 bed of the river Parret, near its mouth, between Start island and Stone wall, 

 roots and prostrate trunks are seen in peat beneath an accumulation of silt, 

 14 feet thick. This last mentioned locality is not more than 3 miles distant 

 from the submarine forest at Stolford, described by Mr. Horner, and clearly 

 connects the history of the timber found in the marshes with that occurring 

 on the sea-coast beneath the present level of high-water. Shurton bars, 

 situated about three miles further to the west, and also described by Mr. Hor- 

 ner, exhibits appearances similar to those at Stolford. A similar case, not 

 noticed by Mr. H,, occurs on the shore of Blue Anchor bay, between Watchet 

 and Dunster. 



The site of the forest of Stolford is at the opening towards the Bristol 

 Channel of a flat marsh, which fills a broad valley. A high shingle-bank, next 

 the sea, preserves the marsh from inundation. The roots of the trees are as 

 thickly placed as in a crowded forest ; and the slightest inspection must satisfy 

 any one that the trees grew where they now stand*. The similar forest of 

 Shurton-bars is placed also at the opening of a valley towards the sea ; and it 

 appeared to us that the trees grew in this valley at the foot of the neighbouring 

 slope, and that the neighbouring low clift' had been formed by the action of 

 the waves. Neither here nor at Stolford could we discern any appearances 

 which in the least favoured the notion of the ground whereon the trees grew 

 having subsided from a higher level to its present one beneath the waves. 

 These phenomena are identical with those which have been observed elsewhere 

 on the coasts of England, Prance, the Low Countries, and the North of Ger- 

 many, where remains of ancient forests are found at a level far below that of 

 the present ocean at high-water. 



The peat does not appear over the whole surface of the marshes ; but in 

 the more inland parts it is sometimes partially covered by the alluvium of land- 

 floods ; and near the mouths of the rivers traversing the marshes, it is con- 

 cealed by deposits of marine silt, of considerable depth, which often are of 

 extraordinary fertility, producing crops of wheat of 40 bushels per acre for 

 20 years in succession without manure. Around Huntspill is a tract of this 

 description, partially covered by drift sand. The silt however does not ex- 



* These remains of ancient forests are not confined to the low-lands. On the hill above East 

 Harptree is a small peat>bog, in which are found the stems of oak trees in an upright position. 



