300 NEOZOIC TIME. [CHAP. XIII. 



can hardly be referred to one and the same period of time ; 

 some are undoubtedly much older than others, and as 

 Professor B. Dawkins has suggested, those which contain 

 remains of the mammoth are probably much older than 

 those which contain the bones and tools of Neolithic man. 1 



It is quite possible that some of the submerged forests 

 date back to a time before the severance of England 

 from France, and that Neolithic man made his way dry- 

 shod across the valley of the Channel, but Professor 

 Dawkins believes that he crossed in canoes after the forma- 

 tion of the Straits of Dover. On this point we must wait 

 for further evidence. All the forests of which we have 

 knowledge at present would stand above the sea-level if the 

 land were raised 70 feet, and even allowing for the con- 

 sideration that such trees would not grow to such dimen- 

 sions on the sea-coast, it is not necessary to suppose that 

 England was then more than 90 feet (or 15 fathoms) above 

 her present level. 



Neither is there any valid reason for supposing that 

 Scotland was then higher and more extensive than it would 

 appear if the sea-level coincided with the contour of 15 

 fathoms. The latest deposits assigned to the Glacial 

 period are unquestionably marine ; upheaval ensued, but 

 there is no geological evidence to show that Scotland 

 attained any very great elevation before subsidence again 

 ensued. Professor J. G-eikie has indeed suggested that 

 this was a second continental period, and has designed a 

 map of Europe in the " Forest period," 2 on the assumption 

 that the coast-line north of Scotland coincided approxi- 

 mately with the line of 500 fathoms, and that the Faroe 

 Islands were thus united to Scotland. The chief reason 

 he gives for such an extraordinary elevation of British 

 land at a time so little removed from the present is the 



1 " Early Man in Britain," 1880, p. 255. 



2 In " Prehistoric Europe." 



