420 ON A SUBMARINE FOREST IN THE FRITH OF TAY. 



Submarine Forest, on the East Coast of England.'* I venture 

 to prefix the same title to this paper, which I now offer to 

 the consideration of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, aware of 

 its impropriety, but urged by the wish to connect similar phe- 

 nomena by the common terms employed in their description. 



The bed of peat to be described, and now dignified by the 

 title of a Submarine Forest, occurs on the south bank of the 

 Frith of Tay, and has been observed in detached portions on 

 the west side of Flisk Beach, to the extent of nearly three 

 miles, and on the east side, upwards of seven miles. At this 

 particular place, to which the following observations chiefly ap- 

 ply, it rests upon a bed of clay of unknown depth. This Clar- 

 is of a grey colour, much mixed with mica, and in some places 

 with grains of quartz, and resembles the Carse ground on the 

 opposite side of the Frith, or the contents of the sand-banks 

 which obstruct its channel. The upper portion of this clay 

 has been penetrated by numerous roots, which are now chan- 

 ged into peat, and some of them even into iron-pyrites. The 

 surface of this bed is horizontal, and situate nearly on a level 

 with low water-mark. In this respect, however, it varies 

 a little in different places. The peat-bed occurs immediately 

 above this clay. It consists of the remains of the leaves, 

 stems and roots of various common plants, of the natural or- 

 ders Equisetacese, Gramineae and Cyperacese, mixed with 

 roots, leaves, and branches of birch, hazel, and probably also 

 alder. Hazel-nuts, destitute of kernel, are of frequent occur- 

 rence. All these vegetable remains are much depressed or 

 flattened, where they occur in a horizontal position, but, where 

 vertical, they retain their original rounded form. The peat 

 can be easily separated into thin layers, the surface of each co- 

 vered with leaves. The lowest portion of this peat is of a 

 browner colour than the superior layers ; the texture likewise is 



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