28 PHYSICAL AND GEOLOGICAL DESCRIPTIOlf. 



had washed the earth out very low on the strand in front 

 of the boarding-houses, when the tide was out,*he saw a 

 large number of stumps upon the sand. They were stand- 

 ing upright, and, on examining them carefully, he found 

 there was every indication that they were in the spot 

 where they grew. They were of medium size ; about as 

 thick as trees usually stand in a forest — perhaps a hundred 

 of them on an eighth of an acre — some of them were of 

 oak, The bark was still on the roots, and the traces of 

 the fibrous rootlets were to be seen in the earth around 

 them. The next tide again buried them in the sand, and 

 they have not since been seen, to the Doctor's knowledge. 

 The spot where they stood, was, within the last thirty or 

 forty years, covered twelve feet deep by the rich loamy soil 

 of Cape Island. 



The farm near the light-house, which is a loamy and 

 fertile soil, without any resemblance to the beaches now 

 forming from the ocean, is underlaid to some extent, at 

 the depth of about two feet, by oyster and clam shells. It 

 is common to find them, at that depth, in digging holes for 

 fence posts, as I am informed by the Hon. Downes Ed- 

 munds. This land is elevated a few. feet above tide-level. 



