In many places, but particularly nearest the blue clay, the brown matter had a strong smell resembling that of bilge water.
§ 52. In order to ascertain whether the species of any of the plants contained in the brown matter could be made out, I sent specimens of it to my friend Mr. Brown of the Linnean Society, whose eminent skill in botany is so well known, requesting him to examine them. He informs me that the plant which was best preserved was the only one upon which he could pronounce with any degree of probability, the rest being too much decayed. It resembles the common Sea Grasswrack, but the leaves are so much broader that he considers it more probably the Zostera Oceanica of Linnæus: it is worthy of remark, that Dr. Smith, in his Flora Britannica, when speaking of this plant, says, “ Zostera Oceanica Linnæi, sui gcneris planta, nostras nunquam oras attigit.”
§ 53. There are several sorts of wood, but it is difficult to say to what species they belong. I was accompanied in my examination of this forest by John Acland, Esq. of Fairfield, and some of his friends, who seemed to agree very generally that some of the trees were distinctly oak and yew. Of these, and particularly the latter, the texture is still entire; there are others which are soft and easily cut by the spade, but even these when allowed to dry become very tough and hard. The trunks seldom appear more than a foot above the ground, and they seem as if the stem had been broken off. Some of them however are smooth, as if sawed across, which has probably been the case, for a great deal of the timber has been carried away by the country people; and I was told by a farmer who had lived a great many years in the neighbourhood, that he recollects when there were stems standing erect above the height of a man, with lateral branches extending from them. This farmer some years ago ploughed up a part of
