368 PLEISTOCENE SUBMERGENCE. [1892-93. 



But before reading I should like you to read the explanations 

 that have been suggested by others, and to which I have given, 

 I trust, impartial considerations in the paper referred to 

 'Quarterly] J[ournal] Geological] Society,' vol. clviii. pp. 323-328. 

 You will, I think, see that none of them meet all the conditions 

 of the case, and most of them ignore the consequences which the 

 adoption of their views would involve. . . . Ever yours 

 sincerely, JOSEPH PRESTWICH. 



J. Prestwich to Sir J. Evans. igth Dec. 1892. 



I have adopted your suggestion to omit reference to the 

 Deluge, and think you are right. 1 It might have been supposed 

 that I was working up to that end, whereas I was brought to it 

 solely by the evidence, and you, no doubt, will remember that it 

 always struck me that there was something besides river, marine, 

 and ice action in the superficial phenomena. The [Philosophical] 

 'Transactions' have not been surcharged with Natural History 

 papers of late years. 



The preceding letters allude to the great Submerg- 

 ence paper by Joseph Prestwich, " On the Evidences 

 of a Submergence of Western Europe, and of the Medi- 

 terranean Coasts, at the Close of the Glacial or so-called 

 Post - Glacial Period, and immediately preceding the 

 Neolithic or Recent Period." It was sent in to the 

 Royal Society on 15th December 1892, and was read 

 and published in the ' Philosophical Transactions ' in 

 1893. The substance of the following unfinished pre- 

 face was given in this paper ('Phil. Trans.,' pp. 980- 

 984) :- 



I am aware that in proposing the hypothesis advanced in the 

 following paper it may be considered that I am taking a retro- 





1 The subject was subsequently dealt with in a little work by Prestwich, 

 entitled ' On Certain Phenomena belonging to the close of the last Geologi- 

 cal Period, and on their bearing upon the Tradition of the Flood,' 1895 

 (Macmillan). 



