Page:Submerged forests (1913).djvu/46

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SUBMERGED FORESTS
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were of fine proportion, measuring three feet in diameter, quite straight and seldom forked. At an average height of two feet above this "forest No. 1" the remains of another were found (in the peat) consisting of oaks and yews. Three feet above "forest No. 2 " lay the remains of another, in which the trees are all Scotch firs, some of which were three feet in diameter. Above this and near to the surface was seen a still newer forest of small firs. The peat close to the surface contains remains of sallow and alder, and was formed with the sea at its present level.

It will be noticed that the greatest depth at which these rooted trees were found was only about ten feet below the sea-level. At this high level we must expect to find that the growth of the peat was practically continuous, and that the different submerged forests run together. In adjoining depressions the different forests would occur at lower levels and would be separated by beds of marine silt. It does not follow from the position that a low-level submerged land-surface is older than one at a higher elevation, for above the present sea-level all these stages are represented by a few inches of soil, on which forest after forest has grown and decayed. Anyone who has collected antiquities on fields knows what a curious jumble of Palaeolithic, Neolithic, bronze age, Roman, mediaeval and recent things may