154 Dr. Correa de Serra on a submarine Forest, 
of may be ascribed. It affords a simple easy explanation of 
the matter ; its probability is supported by numberless instances 
of similar events ; and it is not liable to the strong objections 
which exist against the hypothesis of the alternate depression 
and elevation of the level of the ocean ; an opinion which, to 
be credible, requires the support of a great number of proofs, 
less equivocal than those which have hitherto been urged in its 
favour, even by the genius of a Lavoisier.* 
The stratum of soil, sixteen feet thick, placed above the de- 
cayed trees, seems to remove the epoch of their sinking and 
destruction, far beyond the reach of any historical knowledge. 
In Cesar’s time, the level of the North sea appears to have 
been the same as in our days. He mentions the separation of 
the Wahal branch of the Rhine, and its junction to the Meuse; 
noticing the then existing distance from that junction to the 
sea; which agrees, according to D’Anville’s inquiries, -f with 
the actual distance. Some of the Roman roads constructed by 
order of Augustus, under Agrippa’s administration, leading to 
the maritime towns of Belgium, still exist, and reach the pre- 
sent shore. J The descriptions which Roman authors have left 
us, of the coasts, ports, and mouths of rivers, on both sides of 
the North sea, agree in general with their present state ; ex- 
cept in the places ravaged by the inroads of this sea, more apt, 
from its form, to destroy the surrounding countries, than to 
increase them. 
An exact resemblance exists between maritime Flanders and 
* Mem. del' Acad, de Paris. 1789. p. 351, 
f D’Anville Notice des Gaules. p. 461. 
X Nicol. Bergier. Hist , des grands Chemins des Romains. Ed. de Bruxelles. 
Vol. II. p. 109. 
