Page:History of the Fylde of Lancashire (IA historyoffyldeof00portiala).pdf/138

 taken by the storm-driven waves, furnishes an apt illustration of the most natural way in which the downfall of the forest may have been accomplished. The Rev. W. Thornber, who has bestowed much time and labour on the subject, says:—"There are some facts that will go far to prove that these forests, once standing on Marton Moss, were overthrown by an inundation of the sea, viz., every tree on the Moss, as well as the Hawes, lies in a south-eastern direction from the shore; and the bank, which appears to have been the extent of this irruption, commencing at the Royal Hotel, runs exactly in the same direction. The shells, similar to those collected on the shore, intermixed with wrack of the sea, which are found in abundance under the peat, also corroborate this supposition. Moreover the tide is constantly depositing a marine silt similar to that which lies beneath the peat, and in some instances upon it."

The wreck of such a vast number of trees would cause a great but gradual alteration in the surface of the ground. The masses of fallen timber, blocking up the streamlets and obstructing drainage, would create a more or less complete stagnation of water upon the land; the bark, branches, and leaves undergoing a process of decay would form the deepest layers of the peat; rank herbage and aquatic plants springing up and dying in endless succession, would form annual accumulations of matter, which in course of time would also be assimilated into peat, and in this manner the moss overlaying the original clayey surface and burying the ancient forest, would grow step by step to its present dimensions. Again, each layer of peat, as they were successively formed, would press upon those beneath, so that the weight of its own increase would give firmness and solidity to the substance of the moss. Thus we see that the whole secret of the creation or formation of the moss is simply a process of growth, decay, and accumulation of certain vegetable products annually repeated. The huge moss of Pilling and Rawcliffe owes its existence to similar phenomena.

The large mounds, or star-hills as they are called, which undulate the coast line from Lytham to South-Shore, are composed simply and purely of sand, covered over with a coarse species of herb, bearing the name of star-grass. Similar eminences at one time occupied the whole of the marine border of the Fylde,