CHAP. XII.] ICENIAX PEEIOD. 249 



the east and south of England except a few hills," if it 

 were to be repeated at the present time. He points out, 

 however, that it is very unlikely that the relative levels and 

 contours of the Pliocene land were at all similar to those 

 of modern Europe, that it is much more probable that 

 subsequent differential movements have taken place, the 

 Wealden area having been upraised, while Holland was 

 depressed. 



We may therefore start with the assumption that the 

 geography of early Pliocene time, so far as the relative 

 positions of land and sea in southern England are con- 

 cerned, did not bear much resemblance to that of the 

 present day, and, inversely, that we cannot use the modern 

 physical geography of the country as affording much 

 assistance in a restoration of the early Pliocene geography. 

 It is also certain that great changes took place in the in- 

 terval between the older and newer Pliocenes, and possibly 

 the geographical conditions of early Pliocene time re- 

 sembled those of the Miocene more than those of the later 

 Pliocene. It is true there was an eastern sea or German 

 Ocean which spread over a portion of southern England, 

 but there is no evidence that it approached our north- 

 eastern shores, neither is there any proof of the existence 

 of an English Channel. It is quite possible that England 

 was joined to France by land which united the Tertiary 

 and Cretaceous basin of Hampshire with those of northern 

 Prance, its southern border being perhaps a range of high 

 Chalk Downs, which extended south-eastward from the 

 Isle of "Wight and was continuous with the Chalk districts 

 of Normandy. It is conceivable that the Oligo-Miocene 

 upheaval had lifted this tract of country to a considerable 

 elevation above the sea, the rise being greatest over the 

 southern or Isle of Wight axis, but the whole country 

 sharing in the uplift. If this were so, the tract in question 

 would form an isthmus between the eastern and south- 



