X. M. READE ON THE SUBMARINE FOREST AT THE ALT MOUTH. 447 



28. The Submarine Forest at the Alt Mouth. 

 By T. Mellard Eeade, Esq., C.E., E.G.S. (Eead March 20, 1878.) 



On the shore at Great Crosby, Lancashire, stretching, at irregular 

 intervals, for a space of about a mile nearly due north from a stream 

 of water called Thornbeck Pool, are the remains of a forest, which 

 have from time to time attracted considerable attention. It has 

 been described by various observers, the earliest mention I know 

 of being in the 'Gentleman's Magazine' for 1796, p. 549, accom- 

 panied by an engraving, giving all the salient points which still 

 distinguish the forest-bed. A view of these submarine forestal 

 remains also forms the frontispiece of the memoir by Mr. C. E. 

 De Ranee on the " Superficial Geology of West Lancashire," lately 

 published by the Geological Survey. I have also described it in my 

 paper on the Postglacial Geology of Lancashire and Cheshire *. 



As it has been pretty roundly asserted by some local observers 

 that neither these trees nor those of the equivalent bed on the 

 Cheshire shore are in situ, though I had no doubts of the fact my- 

 self, to set the question at rest I invited several gentlemen f, most 

 of them members of tbe Liverpool Geological Society, to be present 

 on the 19th of January, 1878, at the digging-out and uprooting of 

 one of the stools of the trees, which are now rapidly diminishing in 

 number by the denudation of the sea. 



A low stump was selected which had an oak trunk lying by it in 

 a N.E. by E. direction, to all appearances in the position in which 

 it had rotted off and fallen from its rooted base. 



A trench was cut round the stump ; and the portion isolated by 

 it, in which the stump was situated, measured 7 feet 6 inches by 

 2 feet 6 inches. 



The trench was about 1 foot 6 inches wide at the top, and 2 feet 

 2 inches deep from the surface. It was cut through 1 foot of 

 peat and 1 foot 2 inches of blue clay. The operation was closely 

 watched ; and roots were cut through all round, which ran along 

 near the surface of the clay, and penetrated it diagonally, while 

 rootlets and tap-roots descended vertically below our excava- 

 tion into the blue clay below. To make the investigation com- 

 plete, we carefully pared the clay and peat from about several of 

 the main roots, and traced them from the stump directly into the 

 blue clay, until every one of the party was fully satisfied that the 

 stump was in the position in which it had grown. This being done, 

 by the aid of a couple of planks and the undermining of the stump, 

 we levered it up, when numerous root-sections were visible in the 

 clay below on the stump being turned over. I had the trunk and 



* 'Proceedings of Liverpool Geological Society,' session 1871-72. 



t Messrs. R. A. Eskrigge, F.G.S. ; W. Semmons, F.G.S.; T. J. Moore, 

 C.M.Z.S.L.; Thos. Higgins, F.L.S. ; Alfred Morgan; E. M. Hance, LL.B.; 

 Edwin Foster ; and W. Hewitt, B.Sc. 



Q.J.G.S. No. 135. 2a 



