94 
additional evidence, their outcrop being in the neighbour- 
hood immediately to the northwards. 
Mr. Ormerod informs me that the surface of the boulder 
clay is in ridges or long undulations, and that it frequently 
sinks into deep hollows, making the thickness of its moss 
covering very variable. 
b. The clay is capped by a seam 1ft. 6in. thick of loamy 
sand, which contains the roots and stumps of oak trees, 
birches, and hazels, the stumps being broken off about a foot 
from the surface, and the trees lying near, embedded in the 
moss. Leaves, branches, and hazel nuts are found in abund- 
ance in this thin stratum, upon which rests the moss. 
In an area of about a quarter of an acre laid bare by Mr. 
Ormerod’s excavations were found at least 200 cubic feet of 
oak timber, which was carted away for fuel, forming six cart 
loads. Some of the trees were two feet in diameter, the roots 
in situ in the loam. 
On one of the trees was found a fine specimen of a fungus 
attached to the stem at a foot or two above the root. It is a 
fungus now found growing on oak trees, “ Polyporus igni- 
arius,” and is in beautiful preservation, the pores being quite 
visible to the naked eye. 
It would appear as if the level valley plain on which Chat 
Moss now lies was formerly covered over with a forest of 
oaks with a dense undergrowth of birch, hazel, and other 
brushwood. How these trees were thrown down, and the 
forest became covered up by moss, is subject for speculation. 
It was probably a gradual decay, owing to the lowlying, 
undrained soil, which favoured the growth of sphagnum and 
of such fungi as we have seen attached to the oaks now found 
lying in the moss. 
The occurrence of this thin stratum of loam containing the 
roots of trees in situ, underlying the moss, is strikingly like 
the underclays containing roots of the stigmaria in the coal 
measures. 
