380 ON THE SETEIA AND 
it to have been at a remote period.” The present 
- Ellesmere canal, it may be remarked, runs through 
this intervening valley, and as it is without any 
locks between Whitby on the Mersey and Ches- 
ter; and its top level only at the height of thirty 
feet, from two locks, above high water on the 
Mersey, so the communication between the two 
rivers might easily be effected by a comparatively 
slight elevation of the water level in the estua- 
ries. 
That the sea-level stood much higher, in even 
what are the historical epochs of the country, there 
is every evidence, both from obvious geological 
changes and from the names of places. In the 
course of the canal and in the neighbourhood, as 
at Chorlton and Coghall, are found deposits of 
sea sand mixed, more or less plentifully, with 
shells, whole and comminuted, such as are found 
on our coasts at this day. In the Ince and Frod- 
sham marshes are found, prostrate and embedded 
in silty clay, forest trees, as oak, of large dimen- 
sions, but nowhere is peat found covered up in 
these levels. ‘That this higher sea-level was not 
local, is inferred from the tide, during the time 
of the Romans in this country, flowing up the 
Ribble to Cocciwm—as boats and anchors have 
