XXX INTRODUCTION. 



shore was elevated to a level somewhat higher than its 

 original position." * 



In this interpretation of the phenomena of the supra- 

 cretaceous deposits of Sussex, Mr. Dixon, of Worthing, -f- 

 who has concentrated the observations of many years, upon 

 the geology of that county, fully coincides, and bears tes- 

 timony to the comparatively modern character of certain 

 remarkable changes which have taken place on our south- 

 ern coast. 



To a series of successive elevations and depressions, like 

 those elucidated by the observations of the Geologists 

 above cited, may be attributed the final establishment of 

 the British Channel. And, in referring to that event as 

 comparatively recent, the term must not be judged of in 

 relation to so small a fraction of the world's time as has 

 been marked down in the records of the present infancy 

 of the human race : we shall better appreciate it, perhaps, 

 by recalling the ideas of perpetuity which we attach to 

 our ocean barrier, when, gazing on its waves, we sum up 

 the known changes which they have produced on the coast 

 line within the period of history or tradition. 



Indications of Geological changes during the pliocene 

 period are not limited in England to the southern parts 

 of the island. Mr. Lyell, in his elucidation of the 

 ' Boulder formation of Eastern Norfolk,'! says : " The 

 fluvio-marine contents of the Norwich Crag imply the 

 former existence of an estuary on the present site of parts 

 of Norfolk and Suffolk, including the eastern coast of 

 Norfolk. Into this estuary or bay, one or many rivers 

 entered ; and in the strata then formed were imbedded 



* Op. cit. vol. vi. cit. p, 261. 



f- On the cretaceous and tertiary formations of Sussex, 4to. 



t 'Philosophical Magazine,' vol. xvi. May 1840, p. 373. 



