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IX. On a submarine Forest, on the east Coast of England. By 
Joseph Correa de Serra, LL. D. F.R.S. and A. S. 
Read February 28, 1799. 
In geology, more perhaps than in any other branch of natural 
history, there exists a necessity of strictly separating the facts 
observed from the ideas which, in order to explain them, may 
occur to the mind of the observer. In the present state of this 
science, every well ascertained fact increases our still narrow 
stock of real knowledge ; when, on the contrary, the reasonings 
we are enabled to make, are at best but ingenious guesses, which 
too often bias and mislead the judgment. I shall therefore en- 
deavour, in this Paper, to give, first, a mere description of the 
object, unmixed with any systematical ideas, and shall after- 
wards offer such conjectures on its cause as seem to me to be 
fairly grounded on observation. 
It was a common report in Lincolnshire, that a large extent 
of islets of moor, situated along its coast, and visible only in the 
lowest ebbs of the year, was chiefly composed of decayed trees. 
These islets are marked in Mitchell’s chart of that coast, by 
the name of clay huts.; and the village of Huttoft, opposite to 
which they principally lie, seems to have derived its name from 
them. In the month of September, 1 796, I went to Sutton, on 
the coast of Lincolnshire, in company with the Right Hon. 
President of this Society, in order to examine their extent and 
nature. The 19th of the month, being the first day after the 
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