There are very great bogs in England, especially near the sea in Lincolnshire, which has lost much ground on one side and gained it on the other. In the ancient ground a great number of trees are found buried below the new ground, which has been deposited there by the water. The same also are met with in Scotland, particularly at the mouth of the river Ness. Near Bruges, in Flanders, in digging to the depth of 40 or 50 feet, a great quantity of trees were found, as close to each other as in a forest: the trunks, branches, and leaves, were so well preserved that the different kinds were easily distinguished. About 500 years since, the land where these trees were found was covered by the sea, and before that time there is no trace or tradition that it ever existed; nevertheless it must have been so, when these trees stood and vegetated; therefore this ground, which formerly was covered with wood, has been overwhelmed by the sea, the waters of which has, by degrees, deposited there between 40 and 50 feet of earth upon the former surface, and then retired. A number of subterraneous trees have been also found at Youle, in Yorkshire, 12 miles below the town, near the river Humber; there are some large enough for building; and it is said, perhaps improperly, that this wood is as durable as oak. The people cut them into long thin slips, and sell them in the neighbouring towns, where they are used for lighting of pipes. All these trees appear broken, and the trunks are separated from the roots as if they had suffered the violence of a hurricane, or an inundation. This wood greatly resembles willow, it has the same smell when burnt, and makes charcoal exactly like it.[AN] In the Isle of Man there is a marsh six miles long by three broad, it is called Curragh; subterraneous trees, like willows, are found there, and although they are 18 or 20 feet high, they are, nevertheless, firm on their roots.[AO] Trees are met with in almost every morass, bog, and marsh, in Somerset, Chester, Lancaster, and Stafford. There are some places where trees are found under the earth, which have been cut, sawed, squared, and worked by the labour of man; and even wedges and saws have likewise been found by them. Between Birmingham and Bromley, in the county of Lincoln, there are lofty hills of fine light sand, which the rain and wind sweep away, leaving uncovered the roots of large willow trees, on which the impression of the axe is exceedingly plain. These hills, without doubt, have been formed like downs, by the accumulation of sand, which the waters of the sea has brought there and deposited at different periods. A great number of these subterraneous trees are also found in the marshy lands of Holland, Friesland, and near Groningen, from whence the turfs which they burn are dug. [AN] See Philosophical Transactions, No. 228. [AO] See Ray's Discourses, page 232.