HoBKiRK : Alleged Submeeged Forest near Holmfieth. 139 



soft, but perfectly sound at tlie heart. The small branclies and leaves 

 had to be searched for in the heaps of black peat heaped on the banks 

 of the excavations, and it was full of such matters. The trunks, 

 which were clearly identified, were those of oaks, beeches, and birches, 

 the latter predominating." 



One or two exceptions must be taken to the above, though in the 

 main it is quite correct. The locality is not on the lower coal 

 measures, but on the third grit bed of the millstone grit series. I do 

 not know in what part of the excavation Mr. Plant's measurement 

 was taken, but quite in the centre of the reservoir a pillar had been 

 left standing covered with growing grass on the summit, and this 

 pillar gave the following measurement : — 1 or 2 inches humus with 

 rootlets of the grass, next about lOin. clay or marl, then 4ft. Gin. 

 peat, then the clay bottom which was not cut through. Again, Mr. 

 Plant says that in the trees the wood was soft and black, but sound 

 at heart ; in all those we examined this was not the case, and Mr. 

 Brook, who had one of the best looking taken to his works to be dried 

 with the intention of trying if it were possible to have any article of 

 furniture made from it, informed us that when sawn through the 

 heart was perfectly rotten and decayed, with a surrounding ring of 

 much less decayed wood, but not sufficiently tenacious for any useful 

 purpose. One of the trees, apparently an oak, had been broken off 

 some 4ft. or more from the original ground surface on which it grew, 

 but leaving the roots and rootlets in situ in the subjacent clay, thus 

 showing that, at any rate, this tree was older than the surrounding peat, 

 and the inference is almost clear that the other trees were rooted in the 

 clay. With the main portion of Mr. Plant's conclusion as to the 

 changes in the physical condition of this depression we may, I think, 

 safely agree, viz : — "There can be no hesitation in classing these buried 

 trees with those of which he had spoken, as found in the peat beds on 

 the Lancashire moors, although the deposit is not exactly identical 

 in some respects. The course of events appears to lead to a conclusion 

 something like this. At one time in past ages, on the hills about 

 Harden Moss, clumps of large oaks, beeches, and birches grew in 

 vigorous health ; suddenly by some catastrophe the trees were broken 

 off near their roots, and fell prostrate, where they now are found. 

 The drainage from Harden Moss soon after is stopped, and converts 

 the place into a swampy bog. Peat is then formed and envelopes 

 the trees, and the whole becomes dry and hard. After a time a small 

 lake is formed over the peat ; the waters from the higher ground 



