ON THE ICTIS OF DIODORUS SICULUS. 293 
trading vessels, on almost any part of the coast 
of Cornwall, at a twentieth part of the trouble 
and expense? Even so recently as the former 
half of the last century, the roads in this country 
were almost impassable for wagons, and nearly 
the whole of the traffic was carried on by means 
of pack-horses. Can we suppose, then, that the 
ingots of tin, in the times of the ancient Britons, 
were carted through so long a tract of country, 
before they were conveyed to a port of embarka- 
tion ? 
But suppose the difficulty of this long and tedi- 
ous overland journey to be surmounted, and the 
tin to be conveyed to some convenient place on 
the present Hampshire coast : how shall we con- 
trive a passage for it, by land, to any part of the 
Isle of Wight? We are told, that the passage 
may have been along the shingle bank, which 
probably once connected Hurst Castle with the 
Isle of Wight ; and of which traces, even in the 
present day, are far from being obliterated. But 
though, as Mr. Lyell states, the entrance of the 
channel, called the Solent, is crossed for more 
than half its width by such a shingle-bank,* 
* Lyell’s Principles of Geology ; Book 2. Chap. vi. Vol. I. 
pp. 425, 426. Ed. 5th. 
RY 
