M. W.Pearson — Oscillations of Sca-Ievel. 263 



in 449 ; as this point is now \\ to 2 miles back from the present 

 coastline, it would seem that the sea must have stood at least 15 feet 

 higher on those coasts at that date than it does to-day. Mr. J. E. H. 

 Thomson draws attention to a passage in the " Acta Petri et Pauli," 

 which passage leads him to suggest that the submergence of the 

 Temple of Serapis probably occurred between the " middle of the 

 third century and the middle of the fourth " (Bonney, " The Story 

 of our Planet," p. 203). 



Data as to Low- Water Period of 80 a.d., shoioing also that the sea-level 

 was then lower than at present. 



Septimus Severus between 194 and 211 a.d. decorated the Temple 

 of Jupiter Serapis. Alexander Severus did the same between the 

 years 222 and 235 a.d. These facts indicate a low-water period 

 at that time ("Principles," 11th ed., vol. ii, pp. 171, 172). Pliny 

 (before 79 a.d.) visited the Straits of Gibraltar, and speaks of a low- 

 lying island upon which were the remains of the Temple of 

 Hercules. Pomponius Mela about the same time describes the 

 straits as broken by a number of small islands ; all these islands 

 are now submerged. In 1728, during an extraordinary low tide 

 the remains of this temple were clearly seen, and souvenirs obtained 

 from the ruins {Science Eecord, 1876, p. 543), St. Paul embarked 

 from Assus over a mole now visible under the clear water (Encyc. 

 Brit., vol. xxiii, p. 580). At date of 9 e.g. St. Michael's Mount, 

 Cornwall, seems to have been at the same level with regard to 

 the sea as now (" Principles," vol. i, p. 544). In the island of 

 Capri one of the palaces of Tiberius (14 to 37 a.d.) is now covered 

 with water (vol. ii, p. 176). He (Strabo, about 54 B.C. to 20 a.d.) 

 has brought together a large amount of material to throw light 

 upon the changes which have passed over the face of the earth 

 owing to the retirement of the sea (Tozer, " History of Ancient 

 Geography," p. 251). The island of Batavia, inhabited in the days 

 of Tacitus, is drowned (Journ. Science, ser. in, vol. xliv, p. 179). 



Mr. R. A. Peacock, in Eep. Brit. Assoc, 1865, shows that in the 

 time of Ptolemy (say 100 to 175 a.d.) the coast of Normandy 

 probably extended seventeen miles west of its present position, that 

 Mont St. Michel at one time was ten leagues from the sea, and 

 states his belief that " Jersey was not an island until after Ptolemy's 

 time." The entrance to the Gulf of Corinth, which in the time of 

 the Peloponnesian War (1st, 2nd, and 3rd, between years 431 and 

 404 B.C.) had a width of seven stadia, had become reduced in 

 Strabo's time to a breadth of five stadia (" The Earth and its 

 Inhabitants," Europe, vol. i, p. 50). " From which account it 

 sufficiently appears that the most considerable part of the great 

 level (in Fens of England) was anciently sound dry land by nature, 

 well furnished by timber, trees and woods. That this was the state 

 of the great level when the Eomans entered the island, is highly 

 probable " (" The Fenland Past and Present," p. 29, quoting from 

 Estobb; Eomans invaded England 43 a.d.). Caligula's tower, 

 previously mentioned as showing the high-water period of 1500, 



