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. These 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 deposited there by the force of great rivers or currents, as it has been obferved with refpect to the Miffiffipi. * In many inftances, however, these 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 last description of foffil vegetables, the decayed trees here defcribed certainly belong. They have not been tranfported by currents or rivers; but, though ftanding 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 fhrubs to vegetate fo 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 must 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 stood.

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 instance, 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 fhores of Alexandria, according to Dolomieu's observations, 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 leaft fixteen feet, in the ground between Sampfon and Trefcaw iflands, in Scilly. The foft and low ground between the towns of Thorne and Gowle, in Yorkshire, a fpace 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 fte.ple (of Gowle), they now fee

Bb 2

the

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

This force of fubfidence, fuddenly acting by means of fome earthquake, feems to me the noft probable caufe to which the actual fubmarine fituation of the foreft we are fpeaking of may be afcribed. It affords a fimple ealy explanation of the matter; its probability is fupported by numberless infiances of fimilar events; and it is not liable to the strong objections which exift againft 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 thofe 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 finking and destruction, far beyond the reach of any historical 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 they exifting difiance from that function to the fea; which agrees, according to d'Anville's inquiries, t with the actual distance. Some of the Roman roads conftructed by

order of Auguftus, under Agrippa's adminiftration, leading to the maritime towns of Belgium, ftill exift, and reach the prefent flore. § The defcriptions which Roman an thors have left us, of the coafts, ports, and mouths of rivers, on both fides of the North fea, agree in general with their prefent ftate; except in the places ravaged by the inroads of this fea, more apt, from its form, to deftroy the furrounding countries, than to increase them.

An exact resemblance exifts between maritime Flanders and the oppofite low coaft of England, both in point of elevation above the sea, and of internal ftructure and arrangement of their foils. On both fides, ftrata of clay, filt, and fand, (often mixed with decayed vegetables,) are found near the furface; and, in both, these superior materials cover a very deep ftratum of bluish or dark-coloured clay, unmixed with extraneous bodies. On both fides, they are the lowermost part of the foil, exifting between the ridges of high lands, on their refpective fides of the fame narrow fea. Thefe two countries are certainly 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 long before that time deftroyed, and bu ried under a stratum of foil. Now it seems proved, from historical re

cords

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

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

NE of the mildeft and moft

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 iflets of Sutton, to be comparatively recent. The state 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 ilets 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 fupply the place of that which the waves washed 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 fuppofe that fome 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.

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

Thefe vallies, which are bleffed with the climate of Anatolia and the Leffer Afia, where the winter is fcarcely fenfible, where the primrofes and fpring-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 flourifhing 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 afh, the turpentine-tree, the tanbark-trce, the ftrawberry-tree from Afia Minor, and many others. Thi⚫ laft particularly covers the fteepeft cliffs of the fhore, and beautifies them in winter by its perpetual foliage 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 itself.

of

On the fhores of the

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

P. 401.

planted vine-flems climb the lof tieft trees, and, twining with flowering ivies form feftoons and hedges. The cohtrafts of the orchards and the rich verdure with the beautiful wilderness which the adjacent mountains and rocks prefent, which in fome places rife

which the horrors of war, the fordid purfuit of wealth in great cities, find the luxury which fills the train of all the focial vices, render fo foon intolerable to the fincere votaries of wisdom.*

fame.

where the fight is loft in the unbounded profpect: all thefe beauties together form fo picturefque and delightful a whole, that even the enraptured mufe of the poet or the painter would be unable to conceive any thing more charming. The fimple manner of life of the good-humoured Highland Tartars, who inhabit these paradifaical vales; their turf-covered cottages, fome hewn in the rock on the mountain's fide, others placed amidst the luxuriant foliage of the furrounding orchards; the roving flocks of goats and fheep clinging to the declivities of the folitary rock; the found of the paftoral flute, re-echoing its plaintive tones among the hills-every thing here renews the image of the golden age, its innocence and fimplicity; every thing contributes to cherish the propenfity to an artlefs, retired, and rural life, and

we

for a fecond time gain a fondness for the abode of mortals,

THIS animal is found in Afiatic

ands and from Kamtfhatka to the

diftricts of the Petschora and the Kama; but the quality of his fkin in this extenfive region is extremely different. The finest fables come from Yakutik and Nertfchinfk; and among thefe are likewife, though rarely, yellow, and extremely feldom white fables. The Kamtshadale fables are the largest of all. Their fkin is thick and long-haired, but not very black, therefore most of them go to China, where they are coloured. At the time of the conqueft of that country, the fables were there in fuch extraordinary numbers, that a fingle hunter could eafily bring away fixty, eighty, and more of these animals in a winter, and they were held in fuch little estimation by the Kamtfhadales, that they deemed the more useful skin of a dog to be of twice the value. For ten rubles-worth of iron-ware there was no difficulty to obtain the value of five or fix hundred rubles in fables; and whoever had only fol

lowed

lowed this trade to Kamtfhatka, for the fpace of a year, ufually came back with a profit of thirty thousand rubles and upwards. This fuperfluity, however, fince the first 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 foeafily caught, and are prevented by the bordering fea from retiring to other tracts. The manner in which the fables of Kamtfhatka 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 foon as the little creature is aware of his purfuer, he efcapes into a hollow tree, which the hunter furrounds with a net, and then either cuts it entirely down, or forces the fable by fire and fmoke to abandon his retreat, when he falls into the net and is killed.

firft we could not bring ourfelve. afcribe the theft to them. As w were stripping an animal of his skin, 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 hoved 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 lecure 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 diftance, 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 be feen. If we laid down as if intending to fleep, they came and fmelled at our notes, to try whether we were dead or alive; if we held our breath, they gave fuch a tug to the nofe as if they would bite it off. B b 4

During my unfortunate abode (fays Steller) on Behring's ifland, I had opportunities more than enough for studying 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 easily 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 ufe to them, as knives, fticks, our clothes, &c. They were fo inconceivably ingenious as to roll down our cafks of provifions, feveral poods in weight, and then steal the meat out of them fo ably, that at

On