384 ON THE SETEIA AND 
Taking now into view the accounts and infer- 
ences which we have derived from ancient. his- 
torians and topographists, we shall have little he- 
sitation in allowing a much higher height to the 
sea-level on our coasts than at present exists. If 
we also take a survey of the present boundaries 
of the estuaries and the adjoining lands and val- 
lies, it may easily be seen howarise of the 
present water-level, even to forty or fifty feet, 
would produce such great changes on the face, 
both of land and water, as would materially alter 
the geographical features of the district. 
When we also consider how deeply Wallasey 
Pool separates even now the north part of the 
peninsula from the rest of Wirral, and how the 
line of division is carried on by the Birket Brook 
almost on a level to near West Kirby, we have 
no difficulty in seeing that a level rise in the tide, 
short of thirty, if not of twenty-five feet, would 
completely insulate the promontory of Wallasey, 
and would also submerge a great extent of low 
land towards Leasowes, Great Meoles, and on to 
Hilbree. The rails at the Birkenhead railway 
station are but twelve feet above high water, and 
twenty-five feet below the station at Chester ; 
while the canal between the Mersey and Dee, as 
