f 4$* ) 
there is at this Day a Mark, which, if occafioned by an 
Inundation, was the Mark of an Inundation very pro- 
digious, beyond all ever known to have been in that 
River 5 and that it is a Bed of a Shells , if not of a kind 
of Marble too, lying crofs the High way on the DTcent 
near Stifford-bridge, going from - 6'. Okendon : Of which 
I fhall give a diftindt Account at fome time of leifure, 
by reafon it would be too great a Digreffion here to ex- 
patiate upon it, as it deferves. 
Below this Bed of Shells, at above 5a or 6 a Yards 
diftance, in the bottom of the Valley, runneth a Brook, 
that empties itfelf into th e Thames at Purfeet, about 5- 
Miles from thence ; which Brook ebbeth and fioweth as 
the 'Thames doth, but not at any certain height, by rea- 
Ibn of Mills (landing thereon ^ but above a pretty High- 
water in the Brook, the Surface of the Bed of Shells l 
find to lye above 20 Foot perpendicular. Confequently 
if this Bed of Shells was reported in that place by ail 
Inundation.of the Thames , that Inundation rtiuft be fuch 
35 would have drowned a vaft deal of the adjicent 
Country, and have over-topped the Trees by the Rjver, 
in Weft-Thorrock , Dagenham, and the other Marfhes ? and 
probably By that means over-turn them* 
This I fay feems to me the mod rational way of ac> 
counting for our Subterraneous Tree9, and not by the 
Vniverfal Deluge: For had they been left there by that 
Deluge, we fhould not find the Bed of Earth, in which 
they grew, fa entire and' undiflurb’d, as it manifelfly 
is at this Day, a fpongy, fight, otmey Soil, full of Reed- 
60 ots, as t faidT and I atfure my felf faltho’ I never 
*ry f d it) of much lefs Specified Gravity than the Stratum 
above it is. Whereas f can affaire this Curious and mod 
JLearnsd Society (havitig lately tryed the Experiment my 
fell With competent care and exadtnefs, tecaufe I never 
could be fattefyV, upon the ftridbeft enquiry, that any 
J»od^ elfe fead done itt I can 3 . 1 fay, aflure this Society) 
