THE ALLEGED SUBMEEGED FOREST NEAR 



HOLMFIRTH. 



By Chas. p. Hobkirk. 



On the 19tli February the Huddersfield Naturalists' Society, joined 

 by the Heckmondwike Society, paid a visit to the reservoir now in 

 course of construction at a spot near the Ford Inn called Hillicks, 

 for the supply of water to the neighbouring village of Upperthong. 

 The party consisted of about 40 gentlemen, and was joined on the 

 ground by some members of the Local Board. 



Mr. Plant states in his paper read to the Manchester Geological 

 Society on 25th January: "The Upperthong reservoir lies in a 

 shallow depression, between two long ridges of lower coal shales. The 

 depression is a rushy marsh in the upper part, where it catches the 

 drainage from the eastern flanks of Harden Moss, and at the lower 

 end a small brook runs out to join the Holme at Bridge Mill below 

 Holmfirth, and altogether the depression may contain about 40 acres 

 of surface. The reservoir is dug out of a deposit of no great depth, 

 which principally consists of clay and black boggy peat, both lying on 

 coal measure shales. The depth of the peat and clay varies ; an 

 average depth would not exceed 6 feet ; one measured section gave 

 the following : — Surface, boggy turf, 1 foot ; clay and marl, 2ft. Gin. ; 

 black peat, in which the stumps of trees occur, 4ft. Gin. ; coal measure 

 shales ; total section, 8 feet. The excavation when he saw it was 

 about 200 yards long by 70 yards broad, and had not been carried 

 below the black peat and clay, yet in some places the hard shales 

 were seen forming the floor upon which the trees had once grown. 

 This area contained the prostrate trunks and upright boles of about 

 thirty large trees, which had had the black peat removed from about 

 them, but were otherwise undisturbed. The trees were lying with 

 their heads pointing down the valley, in a direction north-west to 

 south-east, and most of them had been snapped off, so as to leave 

 about three feet of the bole standing, yet in one instance the whole 

 tree had evidently been uprooted, the roots were firmly held in the 

 clay and fissures in the shales. Some of these trunks were 30ft. 

 long, and of good girth at the upper part, showing the age of such 

 trees to be not less than half a century. The wood was black and 



