* NATURVL HISTORY OF 



commenced the gradual denudation of the rocky basis 

 of the Channel Islands, where a tax is still levied and 

 applied to arrest the further encroachments of the sea. 



If tradition could be trusted, the present channel, 

 within the Isle of Wight, was, in earlier ages, suffi- 

 ciently shallow to be forded at very low tides, where 

 now line of battle ships pass in safety ; but this result 

 is applicable to the whole British Channel, while Pooie 

 harbour is filled up by the deposits of slack water. 

 There is a marked character in the long succession of 

 landslips and " founders " in the vicinity of Lyme 

 Regis and Axminster, resulting indeed from percola- 

 tion to certain underlying strata, but, most assuredly, 

 in connection with a progressive erosion of the floor of 

 the channel. * On the coasts of Devon and Cornwall, 

 numerous marks of ancient sea beaches, hove up far 

 beyond the present tide levels, indicate similar pres- 

 sures, and slidings of superincumbent strata, forcing 

 the beach to rise up in the same manner as occurred 

 near Axminster. St. Michael's Mount, however, is now 

 almost severed from Cornwall ; and the invasion of 

 the sea is still attested by the remains of forest trees, 

 sunk beneath the waters. 



Beyond the Land's End, the Scilly Islands, now 

 forming a cluster of rocks, were almost wholly united 



* If similar events, in other countries, were carefully 

 recorded, they would be found surprisingly numerous. Balbi, 

 and Mr. G. Roberts, in his account of the Dowland ana 

 Bindon landslip of 1839, enumerate a great variety oi 

 them. 



