XXX INTRODUCTION. 
shore was elevated to a level somewhat higher than its 
original position.” * 
In this interpretation of the phenomena of the supra- 
eretaceous deposits of Sussex, Mr. Dixon, of Worthing,+ 
who has concentrated the observations of many years, upon 
the geology of that county, fully coincides, and bears tes- 
timony to the comparatively modern character of certain 
remarkable changes which have taken place on our south- 
ern coast. 
To a series of successive elevations and depressions, like 
those elucidated by the observations of the Geologists 
above cited, may be attributed the final establishment of 
the British Channel. And, in referring to that event as 
comparatively recent, the term must not be judged of in 
relation to so small a fraction of the world’s time as has 
been marked down in the records of the present infancy 
of the human race: we shall better appreciate it, perhaps, 
by recalling the ideas of perpetuity which we attach to 
our ocean barrier, when, gazing on its waves, we sum up 
the known changes which they have produced on the coast 
line within the period of history or tradition. 
Indications of Geological changes during the pliocene 
period are not limited in England to the southern parts 
of the island. Mr, Lyell, in his elucidation of the 
‘Boulder formation of Eastern Norfolk,’{ says :—‘‘ The 
fluvio-marine contents of the Norwich Crag imply the 
former existence of an estuary on the present site of parts 
of Norfolk and Suffolk, including the eastern coast of 
Norfolk. Into this estuary or bay, one or many rivers 
entered; and in the strata then formed were imbedded 
* Op. cit. vol. vi. cit. p, 261. 
+ On the cretaceous and tertiary formations of Sussex, 4to. 
+ ‘Philosophical Magazine,’ vol. xvi. May 1840, p. 373. 
