H. W.Pearson — Oscillations of Sea-level. 223 



VII. — Oscillations in the Sea-level. (Part II.) 

 By H. W. Pearson. 



[Continued from the April Number, p. 174.) 



IN the "Gallery of Nature," Milner, p. 388, it is stated that Brighton 

 (then a mere village) in the time of Elizabeth (1558-1603) 

 " stood upon a site where the sea now rolls, and where the chain 

 pier stands." We might infer from this statement that at Brighton 

 the sea, since the date mentioned, had been elevated over the land. 

 We cannot draw this conclusion, however, with certainty, for the 

 reasons following : — 



During the last century the eastern coast of England has been 

 constantly eaten into by the sea ; churches, farms, and towers have 

 been repeatedly devoured by the waves. In this district, however, 

 we know that these results have not been caused by a rise in surface- 

 level of the waters ; we know that erosion by waves and currents 

 has been the sole cause for these changes. It is absurd, therefore, 

 to assume that Brighton during the last few centuries has alone 

 suifered submergence, while all Britain has elsewhere undergone 

 continual upheaval. Erosion, then, is the more probable explanation 

 of this item, and it should not be held as evidence conflicting with 

 our curve. 



A conflicting point of great weight was found in Kear-Admiral 

 Smyth's statement, that the city of Spina in the time of Scylax "was 

 about 2^ miles from the sea, but in less than 600 years afterwards 

 Strabo describes it as being 90 stadia, or more than eleven miles 

 inland" ( "The Mediterranean," p. 47). This remark of Smyth's 

 as to the 600 years disturbed me. Our period of vibration in the 

 sea-level at the time mentioned being perhaps a little short of 

 600 years, there should have been little change in Spina's distance 

 from the sea at these two epochs. On investigation, however, 

 I found that there were two or three writers of this name. I believe, 

 therefore, that Smyth, like others before him, has confounded Scylax 

 of Caryanda, author of the " Periplus " of the Mediterranean, who 

 wrote about 335 b.c. (Miiller) or 352 b.c. (Niebuhr), with the Scylax 

 of Caryanda who explored the Indus for Darius perhaps 515 b.c. 

 or a little later. (See Encyc. Brit., article Scylax.) 



It seems much more probable to me that information as to the 

 shores of the Adriatic should be found in the writings of the later 

 Scylax. I therefore, with some reason, assume that in this case 

 I am more liable to find tioo points confirmatory of my curve, one for 

 the low-water period of the epoch of Strabo, the other for the high- 

 water period of the later Scylax, rather than a conflicting point as it 

 first appeai'ed on my diagram. 



Strabo (Bk. xvi, chap. 4) describes the harbour of Charmothas, 

 Arabia, as, at the time of his writing, apparently in actual existence. 

 Under the same chapter, however, in a footnote from Gossellin, we 

 learn that to-day, from the accumulation of soil, this harbour "ia 

 more than a day's journey into the interior of the country." This 

 recession should not be ; no retreat of the sea, if our curve is to 



