BELISAMA OF PTOLEMY. 379 
did not separately exist in his time. Now to 
bring these questions to any satisfactory solution, 
it will be better to look at the actual physical ge- 
ography of the coast, compared with the remain- 
ing evidence of what its condition was in former 
ages. 3 
I cannot, in pursuance of this part of the 
subject, do better, than make use of some of the 
very judicious and philosophical observations 
which Mr. Ormerod has written on this point, in 
his Introduction to his Historical Survey of 
Wirral, in his splendid work on Cheshire. He 
says, “* That the waters, before the retiring of 
the sea from the western coast of Britain, occu- 
pied the line of these vales; viz: that of the 
Gowy and the Dee, will be doubted by no one 
who has looked down upon the general level of 
the country, either from the forest hills, or from 
the ridge of the great natural terrace near Alford 
or Churton. A tide, a very few yards higher than 
usual, would now cover them to a considerable 
extent.” He also says, ‘‘ That a tide much lower 
than would suffice to cover these levels would fill 
the smaller valley, which intervenes between 
Wirral and Broxton, and render the former hun- 
dred a complete island, as tradition still maintains 
