Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 3.djvu/390

 the forest, and took away above forty cart-loads of the trees, part of which he used as timber, and the rest as fuel; but for the latter purpose it was very unfit, on account of the offensive smell it produces when burning. He chewed me a gate post, which he said was one of the sub-marine trees; it had been put into the ground 40 years before, and was quite entire: he had no doubt of its being yew.

$ 54. From the place where the forest first appears it continues westward about three quarters of a mile without interruption, and it may be most advantageously examined opposite Ham Wall, a barrier erected against the encroachments of the sea. From this point the shore is occupied by the lyas strata for nearly two miles; when, near Shurton Bars, there is a great disturbance in the stratification, and the rocks totally disappear on the shore for some way, although they continue in the cliff to the height of 20 feet. Here, about a quarter of a mile from high water mark, more remains of the forest are found; and in this place I saw the greatest depth of the brown matter and the largest tree. It was about three feet in diameter, and from the concentric circles it was evidently of a great age: Mr. Acland had no doubt of its being an oak. It was of a dark brown colour, and had a greater degree of soundness than most of the wood that is found. There is no appearance of the forest westward of Shurton Bars, as far as I could discover, nor indeed is it likely, for the coast from a little way beyond that point is rocky, and the remains of the forest are only found in those places where the curvature of the lyas strata has formed hollow basins. Warner however, in his Topographical account of Somersetshire, mentions some remains of trees on the shore between Dunster and Minehead. I carefully examined that part of the coast without finding any thing of the kind, but they have