( 4 »* ) 
commonly are feen to do. Some of thofe Stumps I 
-thought had figns of the Axe, and mod: of them were 
flat at top, as if cut off at the Surface of the Earth : 
But being rotten, and batter’d, I could not fully fatisfy 
my felf, whether the Trees had been cut, or broken 
off. 
The Soil , in which all thofe Trees grew, was a black, 
ouzy Earth, full of the Roots of Reed $ on the Surface 
of which ouzy Earth the Trees lay proftrate, and over 
them a Covering of grey Mould, of the felf fame co- 
lour and conliftence with the dry Sediment, or Mud, 
which the Water leaveth behind it at this Day. This 
Covering of grey Earth is about 7 or 8 Feet thick, in 
fome places 12 Feet or more, in feme lefs 5 at which 
depths the Trees generally lye. 
Another thing I took notice of, was the Pofiure in 
which the Trees lay, which was indeed in no kind of 
order, but fome this way, fome that, and manj of them 
acrofs: Only in one or two places I obferv’d they lay 
more orderly, with their Heads for the moft part to- 
wards the North, as if they had been blown down by 
a Southerly Wind, which exerts a pretty ftrong force 
upon that Shore. 
As to the Jge in which thofe Trees were interred, it 
is hard to determine. Many think they have lain in 
that Subterrane State ever fince Noah ' s Flood. But altho 1 
I have not the leaft doubt but that at this Day we have 
-many Remains of the Spoils of that Deluge, even in the 
higheft Mountains, yet I rather think thefe Trees to be 
the Ruins of fome later Age, occafioned by fome extra- 
ordinary Inundations of the River of Thames^ or by 
fome Storms, which (as I faid) blow dharply upon this 
Shore; Either of which adfcs of violence might be able 
to root up, and tumble down Trees growing in fo 
dax a Soil, as thefe manifeftly grew in at that time. 
And as for extraordinary Inundations of the Thames^ 
2 Udu ~ there 
