THE DEVELOPMENT OF BRITISH SCENERY. 281 



and pass round the older Palaeozoic rocks of Wicklow and 

 Wexford, so that, if the sea were dried up, we should pro- 

 bably meet with a dome of old rocks, entirely surrounded by 

 a ring of Carboniferous rocks and in parts bounded by newer 

 formations. 



I need hardly say that the proofs of the impress of the 

 present surface features of the whole of Britain during the 

 Miocene uplift can only be obtained as the result of much 

 more work ; I have merely endeavoured to show that Prof. 

 Judd's view must be regarded as, at any rate, quite as 

 probable as the one which supposes that many of our 

 surface features date from very early times. 



The movements, whatever their age, produced a general 

 elevation in the west of England as compared with the east, 

 and gave the main English rivers their trend to the east, 

 whilst the subsidiary uplift of the Pennine Chain, and the 

 formation of a syncline to the east of it, determined the 

 Pennines as a subsidiary watershed, lying some distance 

 to the east of the main watershed. The elevation of the 

 lake district dome produced a subsidiary radial drainage in 

 that region, and the Tertiary uplifts in Southern England 

 gave rise to the Wealden drainage and to minor drainage 

 systems situated to the west of it. 



We have evidence in the existence of many submerged 

 valleys around our coasts, and also in the interior (the latter 

 filled with drift), that in Pre-Glacial times our land was as a 

 whole situated at a higher level than it is at present, when 

 indeed it formed part of the continent. The drainage to the 

 east of England then flowed into the continuation of the 

 Rhine ; that to the south, to a river situated in the position 

 now occupied by part of the English Channel. Soundings 

 to the west suggest the existence of a deep river valley 

 running from Scotland towards Cornwall, into which the 

 rivers of the west of England, of Wales and of the east of 

 Ireland, flowed as tributaries, and the existence of a deep 

 channel, shallowest about the centre of the uplift of Wales, 

 Wexford and Waterford, points to the existence of this 

 river before the Welsh uplift, and the consequent dis- 

 turbance of what would otherwise be a radial drainage, 



