H. W.Pearson — Oscillatiom of Sea-level. 259 



o^ recent development" (p. 355). "It may be suggested that part 

 of tlie present land was then marshland" (p. 356). "A stuily 

 of the shore of Somerset County (Herriman's map) seems to indicate 

 that considerable filling in has taken place since the date of the 

 map" (p. 381). " Portions of the coast, such as James Island Marsh, 

 Hazard Point, and Deals Island, and possibly Nauticoke Point, are 

 represented by Herriman as islands clearly separated from the 

 mainland'' (p. 381). " Seavorn River is too broad " (p. 382). South 

 and west rivers " show the constant error of being too broad. This, 

 however, is a feature which is common to the rivers of this and 

 many other maps of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries " 

 (p. 381). 



Now these data so clearly shown by Mr. Mathews lead to but 

 one conclusion. We cannot believe that these ancient geographers 

 made mistakes of observation always in one direction ; they mapped 

 out the present peninsulas as islands, because the sea stood higher 

 at that time, and they were islands ; they mapped out the rivers 

 broader than now, because at that time they were broader, owing to 

 the higher sea-level. The filling in has taken place ; the " recent 

 development " of islands and points and marshes has occurred, 

 simply because the sea has fallen in the last two hundred years, and 

 the observed change in the topography of these shores is the necessary 

 consequence. 



Zagoskin says "that the spot where the fort now stands [Fort 

 Yukon, Alaska] has been covered by the sea within the memory 

 of the Indians living at the date of his visit in 1842 and 1843 " 

 (Howorth in Journ. Roy. Geog. Soc, vol. xliii, p. 246). Mr. H. W, 

 Elliot, in " The Seal and Salmon Fisheries of Alaska," vol. iii, 

 states that when the natives first came to the Pribilof Islands, 

 Novastoshnah was an island by itself; it now forms a portion of 

 St. Paul's Island. (The natives came to these islands immediately 

 on their discovery in 1766.) " The lagoon (near village of St. Paul) 

 was then an open harbour, in which the ships of the old Russian 

 Company rocked safe at anchor. To-day, no vessel drawing ten 

 feet of water can get nearer than a mile from the lagoon " (p. 21). 



Further to the north, at Colon and at Santa Marta and several 

 other points of the coast of New Granada, the ground has visibly 

 risen since Europeans first landed on the Continent (Reclus, "The 

 Earth," p. 552). The marshes [of the Vendee, France] raised above 

 the sea-level within historic times four centuries ago (Encyc. Brit., 

 vol. xxiv, p. 137). "In the reign of Edward III (1327-1377) it 

 was unlawful to bathe in the Fosse or in the Thames near the 

 Tower, the penalty being death " ("Authorized Guide to the Tower 

 of London," p. 11). This would show a full moat at that period. 

 Tlie ditch was dry in 1140. Longchamp spent a large sum of 

 money in 1190, " but he failed to fill the ditch with water " (p. 149). 

 The easiest explanation of the presence of water in the moat at the 

 above date lies in the high-water period then in existence. The 

 moat to-day contains no water whatever. 



