648 
this Kentish submersion of land and that of Lincolnshire 
arose from another cause, which now remains to be con- 
sidered, namely, " Subsidence." This phenomenon of the 
existence of submarine forests is by no means a rare one, 
and may be witnessed at various points of the shores of 
Scotland, England, and Wales. On the northern shore of 
Fife, bordering the estuary of the Tay, such a forest may 
be seen occasionally, although usually concealed by a bed of 
stratified silty clay, from fifteen to twenty-five feet thick, 
interspersed with marine shells. In Hartlepool Bay, such 
another forest may be seen during the lowest neap tides, whose 
stumps of oaks, firs, alders, thorns, and hazels, intermixed with 
their berries, nuts, seeds, and also with the horns of the ox, 
red-deer, and even with the wing-cases of land beetles, 
not unfrequently excite considerable attention. In this 
county are several similar instances. Off Outhorne is a 
bed of fresh-water deposit, usually below the sea, containing 
roots of oaks, hazels, &c, and amongst their fallen nuts and 
leaves, a British " dug-out," or canoe, was discovered, 
together with the horns and bones of the red-deer ; and I am 
informed that at other points, on the Holderness coast, 
submarine forests have also occasionally become visible; 
also at Holme, in Norfolk, on the southern side of the Wash. 
The south coast possesses many examples of the same 
character, of which Bournemouth offers one, and the tract 
between St. Michael's Mount and Newlyn another. The 
latter was once no doubt forest land, and this appears to 
confirm in a remarkable manner, the ancient title of that 
extraordinary eminence, which, according to Carew, was 
termed " the rock in the wood." Sir H. de la Beche says 
the shores of West Somerset, Devonshire, and Cornwall 
abound with instances of these submerged lands ; and one 
has come under my own notice during the past year in 
Padstow Harbour, on the northern coast of the last named 
