74 Floivcrs and their Pedigrees, 



valleys of the old lake-system were flooded, cutting 

 off Ireland and the western Hebrides as two large 

 and compact islands, considerably bigger than they 

 now remain at the present day. Then, doubtless, 

 the North Sea and the Channel were overflowed, 

 leaving only a narrow neck of chalk downs as a 

 connecting link between Kent and Picardy, which 

 the waves gradually beat down and at last destroyed 

 The cliffs of Dover and Cap Blancnez, of Beachy 

 Head and Dieppe, now mark its limits. Still the 

 Bristol Channel remained an open valley, and Scilly 

 was united to the Cornish peninsula. Next, Scilly 

 and the Channel Islands went ; while the Hebrides 

 and the western coast of Scotland broke up Into a 

 number of separate islets, only the granite crests of 

 the higher mountain-ranges now overtopping the 

 water in long lines, while the lateral valleys became 

 the straits which separate the various members of the 

 different archipelagos from their nearest neighbours. 

 Any one who has once yachted down the broken 

 ridge of the Outer Hebrides cannot fail to have 

 noticed that they seem but the summits of a vast 

 sunken range, jagged and beaten at the outer edge by 

 the ceaseless dash of the Atlantic. Last of all, 

 apparently, went Anglesey, Wight, and the coastwise 

 eyots, as well as the Bristol Channel. On the pro- 



