242 TBACES OF A POST-GLACIAI, FLOOD IN COENWALIi. 



which such abounding evidence has been adduced by Mr. H. H. 

 Howorth, F.S.A., in the Greological Magazine for 1883-4. Such 

 a "pluvial period" probably mingled with land floods from 

 remnants of melting ice would re-arrange the gravel beds, 

 leaving large masses on the flat hill tops, sweeping other portions 

 from the steep hill sides to lower levels, and forming the thick 

 gravel beds which now border the more recent alluvium of the 

 valleys. Afterwards the whole country appears to have sunk 

 beneath the ocean, and when it re-appeared after its baptism, 

 and the turbulent waters slowly retreated from off the surface 

 of the ground, the beat of the waves, and the prolonged tide 

 washing in shallow water, left a blessing behind them, by 

 depositing first the clayey subsoil, then the less heavy but more 

 friable and fertile soil, described by Mr. Trimmer as the " Warp 

 of the Drift; " — thus rendering the land a fit abode for the last 

 and best of all God's works. 



On the origin and formation of soil I am constrained to quote 

 the opinion of that philosophical and acute observer, the late 

 Mr. Eobert Chambers, F.Gr.S., &c., he says: — "On the whole 

 subject of the Superficial Formation I am disposed to make one 

 concluding remark. I desire to refer to the broad fact, that in 

 the regions of the earth where soil can least be dispensed with, 

 there should have been a peculiar agency at work which secured 

 the very general diffusion of soft matters over the hard surface. 

 The warm parts of the world have large growth from little soil ; 

 but if the parts north and south of the fortieth parallels had 

 been left to only such influences as the air and water they might 

 have been so meagrely furnished with the needful matrix for 

 vegetation, that little population could have there existed. As 

 it is we have clays, and sands, and gravels, and mixtures of all 

 three, spread in deep beds very generally over the temperate 

 regions, so as to insure ample material for the agriculturist to 

 work upon. In the present state of the sub j ect of flnal causes, I 

 suppose it would be held as rash to say that all this was matter 

 of design ; but I feel at least inclined to say that if it was not 

 from a premeditated plan of the A.lmighty Creator of the 

 worlds, it looks marvellously like one, just as the existence of 

 coal and other minerals does, and I do not see that we can be 

 far or fatally wrong if we feel thankful for it accordingly." 



