Among these examples, sometimes ill stated, and at others ill understood, may be mentioned that described by Rammazini, as occurring in the neighbourhood of Modena. Here beneath the ruins of an ancient town, also buried in the earth, are found entire trees, hazel it is thought, with their leaves and fruits. Beneath this lies a marine stratum, containing sea-shells, and below that again other strata of vegetable remains. We need not attend to the theory of this author on that subject, as, under some form or other, similar appearances are common in various parts of the world, and notedly so in Italy.
In our own country, submerged trees occur in the Isle of Man, on the coasts of Lincolnshire and of Somersetshire, in Anglesea and elsewhere ; and silicified wood has long been known to exist in Loughneagh in Ireland. It is found all along the eastern shore, as at Scarborough and on the Norfolk coast ; and in Sussex a fossil wood, like the surturbrand of Iceland, is sometimes dug up, while Bovey in Devonshire is a great repository of that lignite which has sometimes been called brown coal, board coal, and Bovey coal. As among these, the Lincolnshire speci mens are the most remarkable, we shall abridge the ac count of them from those authors by whom they have been described. They are not, however, solely confined to Lincolnshire, but extend into the adjoining counties.
Some of these trees are so large as to be used by the people for building their houses, and they are found to be more durable even than oak. They appear to be fir, be cause they split in the same manner, and burn with a re sinous smell ; arid because their branches are disposed in the circular manner common in those trees. Some of them are nearly an hundred feet long, and one in diameter. It is a curious circumstance here, as in many other similar cases, that the trunks all lie in one direction, with their tops all directed to one quarter. The wood is blackened, by means of iron in the ground where it lies, and is some times so hard as to be as fit for cabinet-makers' work as ebony. Besides these fallen trunks, portions of the stumps in an erect position are found in the earth below them ; proving, if that was necessary, that they grew where they lie, although none such will grow in that country at pre sent.c The district which they occupy is a long flat, bounded on one side by the Humber ; and observations made long after Dr. Richardson, from whom we have bor rowed these observations, by Al. Correa de Serra, have proved that the level of this land relatively to that of the sea, has been altered more than once.
Similar trees are found in Hatfield Chace. This dis trict contains 180,000 acres, 90,000 of which were over flowed, till they were drained and reclaimed by Vermui den, a Dutchman. Now, throughout the whole, extend ing to the skirts of the Lincolnshire wolds, millions of roots and trunks of trees of all sizes are found, consisting of fir, oak, birch, beech, yew, willow, hawthorn, ash, and others, most of them standing in their natural positions as thick as they can grow, and with their roots entire. Some of the larger trunks arc prostrate, and their tops are directed to the north-east ; and firs of a hundred feet long have been found, capable of being used for the keels of ships. Oaks of the same size have also been found, and the wood of them is used instead of ebony. The ash trees, it is remarked, are all decayed, though the willows are entire.
It is next remarkable that many of these have been burnt through, or partly, while others have been chopped and squared in various ways; even the wedges and stone axes that have been used for splitting them having been found sticking in their clefts. Roman coins have been found also in the same neighbourhood. Upon the confines of this flat tract also, between Birmingham and Brumley, are several hills of loose sand, which, when blown away, discover many roots of firs, having also the marks of the axe upon them. Hazel nuts and acorns, together with fir cones in large quantities, are also found buried in the soil ; and, what is still more remarkable, if there is no error, marks of the plough were observed in the furrowed shape of the soil.
But M. Correa de Serra's remarks are deserving of a little more attention, from their reference to the geolo gical changes which must have been the cause of these appearances. The spot which he describes is situated near Sutton, and consists of some low banks, only visible at the time of ebb. These extend about a mile in breadth, and twelve in length, and consist almost entirely of roots, branches, trunks, and leaves of trees, with some aquatic plants. Some of these remains are standing on their roots, while the trunks of the greater part are scattered about in various directions. In general the barks were well pre served, but the wood was decomposed, although sound pieces of timber are occasionally found among them. Birch, fir, and oak are distinguishable ; and many of the trunks are flattened or compressed like the surturbrand of Iceland.