CHAP, ir.] SOUTH-EASTERN COAST-LINE OF BRITAIN. 17 



South- Eastern Coast-Line of Britain. 



We may gather from the alternation and repetition of 

 beds deposited by fresh, brackish, and salt water, in the 

 above table, the important fact that south-eastern 

 England was traversed by a fluctuating shore during the 

 whole of the Eocene age, while to the north-west of the 

 line above mentioned there were no geographical changes 

 sufficiently great to leave any permanent mark in the 

 geological record. On the continent, however, great 

 oscillations of level took place. The Pre-nummulitic 

 age was a period of elevation, followed in the Nummulitic 

 by a great depression beneath the waves of the sea, fol- 

 lowed in its turn by a period of re-elevation. None of 

 these movements have left any trace in Britain, in the 

 area to the north-west of the above-mentioned line, con- 

 sequently this may be taken to be that of the Eocene 

 sea-board of Britain. Its exact position varied from 

 time to time, and considerable additions were made to 

 the land, more particularly in the Post-nummulitic times, 

 by the accumulation of shoals and alluvia, like those by 

 which large tracts have been added to Great Britain since 

 the invasion of the Komans, such as that joining the Isle 

 of Sheppey to the mainland of Kent, or that which has 

 converted the Roman port of Anderida into the green 

 pastures running close under the ramparts of Pevensey 

 Castle. By this means, as well as by movements of 

 elevation and depression, frequent changes took place in 

 the shallow Eocene sea. 



The Eocene Sea. 



We have no evidence that the Eocene sea touched 



c 



