ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixui 
Captain James has also presented us with an account of one of 
those accumulations of wood and peat known as submarine forests, 
so frequent in certain localities around the British Islands, and 
observable on the shores of Western Europe from Spain to the 
Baltic, and which, often occurring partly beneath the present level 
of the sea and partly above it, mark a depression of the land, 
since the vegetation was the same as we now find it near the same 
coasts. The case noticed by Captain James was observed at Ports- 
mouth during the progress of some works there. The peat, with 
the trees standing as they grew, rests on clay, considered as London 
- clay, and extends even to 29 feet beneath high-water level. The 
‘forest’ inclines northward, or towards the inner part of the harbour. 
Among the peaty matter Lacuna Montaguei was found, as also 
the Zostera marina, on which that mollusc feeds, indicating, 
Captain James observes, the presence of very shallow salt water. 
Indeed, these may have become mingled with the peat when the land 
first began to descend beneath the sea-level. Over the peat there is 
blue clay four feet thick, similar to the present estuary mud, and con- 
taining the shells now commonly found in the harbour. Above the 
clay there is shingle, which may have been forced over the mud by 
the sea during heavy gales; and the author calls attention to the 
effect which would be now produced if from any cause the narrow 
neck of land connecting the Block House with the main-land should 
be carried away, the mud of Haslar Creek being then liable to be 
covered by shingle in a similar manner. Above the shingle there is 
clay, a continuation of the bed of the present estuary, and upon this 
a mass of rubbish of various kinds rising above the sea-level. 
We have seen that Mr. Lyell points to a depression of land to pro- 
duce the vegetable and mineral accumulations of the Eastern Virginia 
coal-field, referred to the geological date of either the oolites or upper 
part of the new red sandstone series of Europe. We have next to 
notice the changes in the relative level of sea and land, supposed by 
Mr. Prestwich to have taken place during the formation of the ter- 
tiary rocks in the London and Hampshire districts. He refers to the 
view taken by him in 1846 as to the gradual subsidence of the sea- 
bottom during the production of the Bognor beds in the Isle of 
Wight, and considers that this depression extended over the western 
portion of the London district. He further supposes that the in- 
creasing depth caused by the subsidence was neutralized by detrital 
accumulations, so that the general conditions for the existence of a 
certain animal life remaining the same, this life was continued during 
the deposits. He infers that proceeding more eastwards deeper 
water prevailed. 
Mr. Prestwich concludes that a sea first extended uninterruptedly 
over the London, Hampshire, and Paris tertiary areas; that at a 
period coeval with the change of conditions in the mineral structure 
and zoological character of the lower part of the London and Bognor 
clays, a separation took place between the Paris and Hampshire areas, 
leaving the latter still connected with the London district ; that after 
the deposit of the London clay the communication between the French 
