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Show ~60 iMBEDDiNG OF WORKS OF ART [Ch.XVI, 1 . ble channel is thrown a mile nearer in Purbeck, that t 1e navtga . d . that Po.m t *· Tl1 e cause I.S obvious '. the udal curren. t epos1. t3 the sed.i ment . h h' 1 't · charged around any obJect wluch wlt w 1c 1 1 15 • checks 1. ts ve1 o c1. ty. M a tter also drifted along t.h e. bottom Is 1 arrested by any o b stac1 e , an d accumulate. s round 1t J.U St as t 1e. Afri.C an sand-wm. d s, b e1j'0 1. e described ' raise a small h11lock ovei the carcasses of evet. Y d ea d camel exposed on the surface of the desert. . Wca1 1 u d e d ,m. th elj''o rmer volume 1·, to an an.c ient Dutch vesse1 , dI. scovere d m. tl1 e deserted channel of the r1ver Rother, I. n Sussex, o f w1 1 1. C11 tl1 e o'a k wood was much bla.c kened,. b.u t · 1. ts texture unc1 1 ange d . The interior was filled .w 1th fluvia. tile !:.n it, as was a1 s o tl1 e ca se in reO'ard to a vessel discovered m a !:) •• former bed of the Mersey' and another dismt~rred '~here the St. Catherine Docks are excavated in the alluvial plam of the Thames. In like manner; many ships have been. f~und preserved entire in modern 'strata, formed by th~ siltm~ up ?f estual"ies a1on0' the southern shores of the Baltic, espeCially m Pomerania. Between Bromberg and Nakel, for example, a vessel and two anchors in a very perfect state were dug up far from the seat· f 1 · t At the mouth of a river in Nova Scotia, a schooner. o t my- two tons, 1a d en W'It ll live stock ' was lyinO!:)' w• ith her side to the tide, when the bore, or tidal wave, which rises there about te~ feet in perpendicular height, rushed int~ the estuary and ~ver· turned the vessel, so that it instantly disappear.ed .. AfteJ t~e tiue had ebbed, the schooner was so totally buried m th.e.san ' that the taffrel or upper rail of the deck ·was alon~ visible~· . l h t draihing Martm Mcer, a We are informed by Leig 1' t a ' on . .. . . . ed of lal(e ei<Yhteen miles in circumfei·ence, m Lancaslme, a b marl w!:al s laid dry, wherein no fewer than ei• g1 1 t cano es weret fo'u nd imbedded. In figure and d'I mens·w ns th ey were n. o unlike those now used 1. 0 A men·c a. I n a mora' ss about mne * This nc~onut 1 received from the Honourable A. Harris. t V 0 1. 1. . p. 278 . ++ Hoff., vol. i. P· 368. § Si\litnl\n's Geol. LechlfOS1 P· 78, who cites :r~·nn. Ch. XVI.) IN SUBAQUEOUS STRATA. ~61 miles distant from this Meer, a whetsto~e and an axe of mixed metal were dug up *. In Ayrshire also, three canoes were found in Loch Doon some few years ago ; and during the present year (1831) four others, each hewn out of separate oak trees. They were twenty-three feet in length, two and a half in depth, and nearly four feet in breadth at the stern. In the mud which filled one of them, was found a war club of oak and a stone battle-axe. The only examples of buried vessels to which we can obtain access, are in such situations as we have mentioned, but we are unable to exam.ine those which have bee~ subjected to great pressure, at the bottom of a deep ocean. It is extremely possible that the submerged wood-work of ships which have sunk where the sea is two or three miles deep has under<Yone ' !:) greater chemical changes in an equal space of time, for the experiments of Scoresby before mentioned show that wood may at certain depths be impregnated in a single hour with salt-water, so that its specific gravity is entirely altered. It may often happen that hot springs chat·ged with carbonate of lime, silex and other mineral ingredients, may issue at great depths) in which case every pore of the vegetable tissue may be injected with the lapidifying liquid, whether calcareous or siliceous, before the smallest decay commences. 'l'he conversion also of wood into lignite is probably more rapid under such enormous pressure. But the change of the timber into lignite or coal would not prevent the original form of a ship from being distinguished, for as we find in strata of the carboniferous era, the bark of the hollow reed-like trees conVCJ'ted into coal, and the central cavity filled with sandstone, so might we trace the outline of a ship in coal, and in the indurated mud, sandstone, or limestone filling the interior, we might discover instruments of human art, ballast consisting of rocks foreign to the rest of the stratum, and othor contents of the ship. Many of the metallic substances which fall into the waters, * Leigh's Lancashire, p. 171 A. D. 1700. |