18 



out at Reculver, there being about 1 J hours difference betvreen the 

 high tides at these respective places. But probably the tide would 

 have taken about the same time to travei'se the estuary, so there 

 could have been no great rush of waters between the two places 

 as some have imagined. And as the author pointed out in a 

 previous memoir, there is no reason to suppose there had been any 

 difference in the comparative height of the land and sea level at 

 the Eoman period compared with the present. Nor had the author 

 found any historical or physical evidences to show that Stonar had 

 been an island, and that there had been a water passage into the 

 Wantsum estuary North of that place ; but in the annals of Sand- 

 wich we do find the rapid decay of the Haven had been traced to 

 a sunken vessel near Richborough. 



At Richborough, about the present high- water mark, a founda- 

 tion of a Roman house has been found. At or near Sittingbourne, 

 Roman burials aud Roman potteries have been found beloiv the 

 level of high- water mark. Stonar, which is but 10 or 11 feet 

 above ordnance datum, has had Roman remains found on it, and an 

 early Roman town existed there. So the author pointed out the 

 error of the previous writers in picturing this Wantsum as a deep 

 and wide estuary, with a mouth extending from Deal to Pegwell. 

 There are numerous small hills of the Woolwich and Thanet beds 

 that stand above the alluvium of the marsh. And the alluvium on 

 recent beds shows no evidences of marine fauna, except cockle and 

 brackish water shells. Again the recent deposits, if we except the 

 sand-hills between Sandwich and Deal, are of no great thickness. 

 In some trial bores made at the time of the proposed Downs docks, 

 specimens were exhibited of the cores fi'om the bore tools, described 

 as of recent deposits resting upon chalk ; but Mr. Dowker, who 

 was present at the committee room in the House of Commons, 

 where these were shown, could testify to their being in Thanet 

 beds, and not in recent deposits. 



Turning to the history of that part of the mouth of the Stour 

 that lies between Stonar and the sea, it was shown that some 

 ancient barrier must have existed to keep out the sea from the 

 word marshes, which show no evidence of marine action, and it is 

 suggested that in the prehistoric period the land must have stood 

 at a higher level, compared with the sea, than at the present time. 

 ]!^ear Deal, the marshes are below high-water mark considerably ; 

 but the author of this Paper has sought in vain for any marine 

 remains in the soil of the marshes, except such as may have been 

 blown inland with the sand-hills. 



If we require to know the effect that would be produced by 

 letting the sea into the marshes now bordering the Stour, we have 

 only to go to Pegwell Bay, where we may find an immense expanse 



