CA.USE FOR THE ORIGIN OF THE TEADITION OF THE FLOOD. 271 



uplift was slow, the action miglit be of the most gentle 

 description. It follows from these premises that the character 

 of the deposits formed under such circumstances will afford an 

 approximately relative measure of the velocity and duration 

 of the currents under which they av ere accumulated. Where, 

 for example, the sediment is fine, we may conclude that the 

 velocity was slow and the I'ise which gave origin to it small. 

 Where, on the contrary, the materials are coarse, we may 

 suppose the rise to have been more rapid and the velocity of 

 the current greater, though they might have been continuous. 

 These considerations, added to the circumstance that this 

 rubble contains the remains of a land fauna only, led me to 

 conclude that the South of England had been submerged at 

 the closeof the Post-glacial period to the depth of not less than 

 about 1,000 feet, for to that height there are traces of this 

 Rubble-drift. As the surface of the submerged area shows no 

 marine terraces indicating periods of rest, it may be inferred 

 that the submergence was compai'atively slow and gradual, 

 the only disturbance being the removal of the finer 

 surface matei'ials with which the waters would become 

 charged. On the other hand, the alternation of fine and 

 coarse materials in the head indicates that the upheaval was 

 by movements alternately slow and rapid, during the latter 

 of which the dehris of the surface so submerged was swept 

 down to lower levels, or lodged in the Hollows and Fissures of 

 that surface, together with the remains of the animals and 

 land shells that had inhabited the submerged land. I con- 

 clude further, from the absence of marine sedimentation and 

 of marine shells on the area that had been submerged, that 

 the submergence was of too short duration to admit of such 

 sedimentation or to afford time for the immigration of a 

 marine fauna from adjacent unsubmerged submarine areas. 



The Phases of the Iruhhie-drift on the Continent and Mediter- 

 ranean Coasts. — The Rubble-drift of the Continent, which is 

 met with at various places over Western Europe and along 

 the coasts of the Mediterranean, accords perfectly with that 

 of the South of England. Rut it presents in addition other 

 phenomena, Avhich, although difiering in detail, bear the same 

 interpretation, and point to the same common origin, and are 

 all explicable on the hypothesis of a comparatively recent, 

 geologically speaking, submergence of the land. We may 

 mention a few of these phases and places. 



Passing by the fine specimen of Raised Beach and '• Head " 



