268 
PROCEEDINGS 1849 — 1858. 
thick as ever tliey could gTow, as the bodies of most of them lie by 
their proper roots " De la Pryme describes an oak whicli was four- 
teen yards (?) in diameter and forty yards long. The full length of 
the tree is calculated at 70 yards. The author cites a tree found in 
1858 sixty feet long to the collar, from whence sprang two large 
limbs each large enough for a separate tree ; its diameter was four 
feet. The reason for the disappearance of these huge forests is con- 
sidered and attributed to one of three causes, viz : 1st, the interference 
of the Romans with tlie natural drainage ; 2nd, a change in the coastal 
line through the action of the sea ; 3rd, the agency of earthquakes, 
causing subsidence of the earth. Of these the author is in favour of 
the latter, and adduces examples in other countries where earth- 
quakes have affected the level of the land ; he also instanced the 
recorded earthquakes which have occurred in eastern England. In 
1048 there was a serious convulsion in Lincolnshire and again in 
1117, the latter extending across to Holland. In 1185 Lincoln was 
much injured by an earthquake, and in 1448 a violent shock was felt 
in the southern parts of the county. In 1750 a shock occurred 
throughout Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire, attended by a 
rumbling noise, chimneys fell, houses tottered, and plates fell from 
shelves ; and in 1792 Bourne and the neighbouring towns experienced 
another shock of earthquake. To these phenomena it is considered 
possible that the land may not only have been submerged but also 
re-elevated, and as trees cannot flourisli whose roots are constantly 
submerged, the trunks would decay and be blown down by the wind, 
the prevailing direction of whicli was from the S.IV., the trunks 
extending towards the north-east. 
Mr. T. Wilson referred to a British Bronze Dagger found in 
excavating at Altofts, near Wakefield, at a depth of twenty-four feet, 
and Mr, Stephen Eddy, of Skipton, read a paper on the Lead Alining 
Districts of Yorkshire ; and a paper was read by Mr. Samuel Baines, 
of Lightcliffe, on the Yorkshire Flagstones and tlieir Fossils. 
In March, 1859, Dr. Sorby read a paper on tlie Structure and 
Origin of the Millstone Grit in South Yorksliire. He described the 
constitution of the millstone grits as consisting of gTains or pebbles 
of quartz, cemented together, in some instances, by decomposed fel- 
