change only in colour, fmell, or confiftence; alterations which are produced by the development of their oily and bituminous parts, or by their natural progrefs towards rottennefs. Such are the foffil vegetables found in Cornwall, by Borlafe; in Effex, by Derham; in Yorkshire, by De la Pryme and Richardfon; and in foreign countries, by other naturalifts. Thefe vegetables are found at different depths, fome of them much below the prefent level of the fea, but in clayey or fandy ftrata (evidently belonging to modern formation), and have, no doubt, been carried from their original place, and depofited there by the force of great rivers or currents, as it has been obferved with refpect to the Miffiffipi. * In many inftances, however, thefe trees and fhrubs are found ftanding on their roots, generally in low or marthy places, above, or very little below, the actual level of the fea.

To this laft defcription of foffil vegetables, the decayed trees here defcribed certainly belong. They have not been tranfported by currents or rivers; but, though standing in their native foil we cannot fuppofe the level in which they are found, to be the fame as that in which they grew. It would have been impoffible for any of thefe trees and thrubs to vegetate so near the fea, and below the common level of its water: the waves would cover fuch tracts of land, and hinder any vegetation. We cannot conceive that the furface of the ocean has ever been lower than it now is; on the contrary, we are led by numberless phænomena to believe,

that the level of the waters in our globe is much below what it was in former periods; we muft therefore conclude, that the foreft here defcribed grew in a level high enough to permit its vegetation; and that the force (whatever it was) which deftroyed it, lowered the level of the ground where it ftood.

There is a force of fubfidence (particular in foft ground) which being a natural confequence of gravity, flowly though perpetually operating, has its action fometimes quickened and rendered fudden by extraneous caufes; for inftance, by earthquakes. The flow effects of this force of fubfidence have been accurately remarked in many places; examples alfo of its fudden action are recorded in almost every history of great earthquakes. The shores of Alexandria, according to Dolomieu's obfervations, are a foot lower than they were in the time of the Ptolemies. Donati, in his natural hiftory of the Adriatic, has remarked, feemingly with great accuracy, the effects of this fubfidence at Venice; at Pola, in Iftria; at Liffa, Bua, Zara, and Diclo, on the coast of Dalmatia. In England, Borlafe has given, in the Philofophical Tranfactions, † a curious obfervation of a fubfidence, of at least fixteen feet, in the ground between Samplon and Trefcaw iflands, in Scilly. The foft and low ground between the towns of Thorne and Gowle, in Yorkshire, a space of many miles, has fo much fubfided in latter times, that fome old men of Thorne affirmed, "That whereas they could before fee little of the fteeple (of Gowle), they now fee

Bb 2

the

the church-yard wall." The infiances, of fimilar fubfidence which might be mentioned, are innumerable.

This force of fubfidence, fuddenly acting by means of fome earthquake, feems to me the moft probable caufe to which the actual fubmarine fituation of the foreft we are fpeaking of may be afcribed. It affords a fimple caly explanation of the matter; its probability is fupported by numberlefs inftances of fimilar events; and it is not liable to the ftrong objections which exist against the hypothefis of the alternate depreffion and elevation of the level of the ocean; an opinion which, to be credible, requires the fupport of a great number of proofs, lefs equivocal than those which have hitherto been urged in its favour, even by the genius of a Lavoifier. † The ftratum of foil, fixteen feet thick, placed above the decayed trees, feems to remove the epoch of their Sinking and deftruction, far beyond the reach of any hiftorical knowledge. In Cæfar's time, the level of the north fea appears to have been the fame as in our days. He mentions the feparation of the Wahal branch of the Rhine, and its junction to the Meufe; noticing the then exifting dittance from that junction to the fea; which agrees, according to d'Anville's inquiries, I with the actual distance. Some of the Roman roads conftructed by

order of Auguftus, under Agrippa's adminiftration, leading to the ritime towns of Belgium, ftill exti, and reach the prefent flore. § The defcriptions which Roman a thors have left us, of the coaft ports, and mouths of rivers, o both fides of the North fea, agre in general with their prefent fiate; except in the places ravaged by the inroads of this fea, more apt, from its form, to destroy the furrounding countries, than to increase them.

Au exact refemblance exifts be tween maritime Flanders and the oppofite low coaft of England, both in point of elevation above the fea, and of internal structure and ar rangement of their foils. On botš fides, ftrata of clay, filt, and fand, (often mixed with decayed vege tables,) are found near the farface; and, in both, thefe fuperior mate rials cover a very deep ftratum ej bluish or dark-coloured clay, un mixed with extraneous bodies. Or both fides, they are the lowermok part of the foil, exifting between the ridges of high lands, on their refpective fides of the fame narrow fea.

These two countries are cotainly coeval; and, whatever proves that maritime Flanders has been for many ages out of the fea, muft, in my opinion, prove alfo, that the foreft we are fpeaking of was kang before that time deftroyed, and bu ried under a ftratum of foil. Now it feems proved, from hiftorical re

'cord

cords, carefully collected by feveral learned members of the Bruffels academy, that no material change has happened to the lowermoft part of maritime Flanders, during the period of the last two thoufand years."

I am therefore inclined to fuppofe the original catastrophe, which buried this foreft, to be of a very ancient date; but I fufpect the inroad of the fea, which uncovered the decayed trees of the illets of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. The ftate of the leaves and of the timber, and alfo the tradition of the neighbouring people, concur to ftrengthen this fufpicion. Leaves and other delicate parts of plants, though they may be long preferved in a fubterraneous fituation, cannot remain uninjured, when expofed to the action of the waves and of the air. The people of the country believe. that their parifh-church once ftood on the fpot where the illets now are, and was fubmerged by the inroads of the fea; that, at very low water, their ancestors could even difcern its ruins; that their prefent church was built to fapply the place of that which the waves waflied away; and that even their prefent clock belonged to the old church. So many concomitant though weak teftimonies, incline me to believe their report, and to suppose that some of the ftormy inundations of the north fea, which in these last centuries have washed away fuch large tracts of land on its fhores, took away a foil refting on clay, and at laft uncovered the trees which are the fubject of this paper.

Defcription of the mountainous Part of the Province of Taurida; from Mr. Tooke's 'iew of the Ruffian Empire.

NE of the mildest and most

fertile regions of the empire is the beautiful femicircular and amphitheatral vale, formed by the Tauridan mountains on their fide along the fhores of Euxine.

Thefe vallies, which are blessed with the climate of Anatolia and the Lefler Afia, where the winter is fcarcely fenfible, where the primroses and spring-faffron bloom in February and often in January, and where the oak frequently retains its foliage the whole winter through, are, in regard to botany and rural economy, the nobleft. tract in Taurida, and perhaps in the whole extent of the empire. Here are feen thriving and flou. rifhing in open air the ever-verdant laurel, the oil-tree, the fig, the lotus, the pomegranate, and the celtis, which perhaps are the remains of Grecian cultivation; with the manna-bearing af, the tur pentine-tree, the tanbark-tree, the ftrawberry-tree from Afia Minor, and many others. This laft particularly covers the fteepeft cliffs of the thore, and beautifies them in winter by its perpetual folinge and the red rind of its thick ftem. In thefe happy vales, the forefts confift of fruit-trees every kind, or rather the foreft is only a large orchard left entirely to itfelf.

On the fhores of the

fea, the caper-bufhies propagate themfelves fpontaneously; without the affiftance of art, the wild or

p. 401.

planted

lowed this trade to Kamtfhatka, for the space of a year, ufually came back with a profit of thirty thoufand rubles and upwards. This fuperfluity, however, fince the firft Kamtfhadale expedition, or fince the year 1740, has confiderably diminished: but notwithstanding this, that peninfula and the circumjacent territory continues to be the richeft in fables, as, on account of the mountains, they cannot be fo eafily caught, and are prevented by the bordering fea from retiring to other tracts. The manner in which the fables of Kamthatka are taken is extremely fimple. The Kamthadales follow the track of this animal in fnow-fhoes, till they have detected his covert, which is generally a burrow in the earth. As oon as the little creature is aware of his purfuer, he efcapes into a holow tree, which the hunter furounds with a net, and then either cuts it entirely down, or forces the able by fire and fioke to abandon his retreat, when he falls into the net and is killed.

During my unfortunate abode fays Steller) on Behring's ifland, I had opportunities more than enough for ftudying the nature of this animal, far excelling the common fox in impudence, cunning, and roguery. The narrative of the innumerable tricks they played us, might eafily vie with Albertus Julius's hiftory of the apes on the island of Saxenburg. They forced themfelves into our habitations by night as well as day, ftealing all that they could carry off; even things that were of no use to them, as knives, fticks, our clothes, &c. They were fo inconceivably ingenious as to roll down our calks of provifions, feveral poods in weight, and then fteal the mcat out of them fo ably, that at

first we could not bring ourselves to afcribe the theft to them. As we were firipping an animal of his fkin, it often happened that we could not avoid ftabbing two or three foxes, from their rapacity in tearing the flesh out of our hands. If we buried it ever fo carefully, and added ftones to the weight of earth that was upon it, they not only found it out, but fhoved away the ftones, as men would have done, with their fhoulders, and lying under them, helped one another with all their might. If, thinking to fecure it, we put any on the top of a high poft in the air, they grubbed up the earth at the bottom, fo that the post and all came tumbling down, or one of them clambered up and threw down what was upon it with incredible artifice and dexterity. They watched all our motions, and accompanied us in whatever we were about to do. If the fea threw up an animal of any kind, they devoured it, ere a man of us could come up; to our great difadvantage: and, if they could not confume it all at once, they trailed it away in portions to the mountains where they buried it under ftones before our eyes; running to and fro as long as any thing remained to be conveyed away. While this was doing, others flood upon guard and watched us. If they faw any one coming at a distance, the whole troop combined at once and began digging all together in the fand, till they had fo fairly put a beaver, or a fea-bear, under the furface, that not a trace of it was to he feen. If we laid down as if intending to fleep, they came and fmelled at our nofes, to try whether we were dead or alive; if we held our breath, they gave fuch a tug to the nole as if they would bite it off. Bb 4

On