NATURE OF THIS INGRESS OF THE SEA 113 
mentions the sea around Britain rising eighty cubits 
on the land. In a question however of this kind 
which involves so much obscurity, the object must 
necessarily be, to assort together as many geological 
phenomena as can be consistently made referrible 
to, and accordant with some acknowledged points 
of history, or historical epochs, where these seem to 
lend assistance in the investigation. 
It certainly appears that this primitive disturb¬ 
ance of the ocean after the period of the Flood w'as 
not of a violent description, for it has been ascer¬ 
tained that the submerged trees at Mount’s Bay, 
as also those discovered by Dr. Fleming in Scotland, 
and in other situations by other observers, are in 
an erect posture, a circumstance incompatible with 
the exertion of great force. 
In this idea of a gradual though in great measure 
quiet mode of ingress to the sea, I am supported by 
the fact of the absence of marine remains from 
these deposits, proving, that during the event no 
forcible irruption of the ocean, such as would trans¬ 
fer and mix its own contents with the productions 
of the adjoining land, took place. It has been found 
also, that the fresh water plants and shells, such 
as were the products of the swamps and low lands 
wherein these forests were situated, are in some 
instances still preserved, and the leaves of the 
trees have, in I believe all cases, been found to have 
accumulated among and over the timber of these 
submarine beds, shewing clearly, how little the sea 
interfered with them at the time the usurpation was 
effected. The clay moreover, or soil in which the 
trees grew, is in many cases still found around 
their roots and the fallen trunks and limbs, and the 
occurrence of this stratum certainly gives these 
submarine deposits a relative age with regard to 
what are termed our u diluvial reliques.” / 
p 
