H. H. Howorth—Traces of a Great Post-Glacial Flood. 75 
depression being implied by the position of some of the stratified 
drift, we must demand an: additional period of 82,000 years, 
amounting in all to 88,000; and the same time would be required 
for the re-elevation of the tract to its present height. But if the 
land rose in the second continental period as much as 600 feet above 
its present level, as in map, p. 328, this 600 feet, first of rising, then 
of sinking, would require 48,000 years more; the whole of the 
grand oscillation, comprising the submergence and re-emergence, 
having taken about 224,000 years for its completion ; and this, even 
if there were no pause or stationary period, when the downward 
movement ceased, and before it was converted into an upward une.” 
Here assuredly we have abundant matter to arrest attention, and 
even to take away our breath. Here we have the great apostle of 
Uniformity, at whose feet the modern school of geology in England 
sits, postulating a movement of a vast extent, covering a very huge 
period, and basing his calculations on purely hypothetical grounds. 
So far as we know, this part of the world is now stationary. So far 
as we know, it has remained stationary at least since Roman times. 
There is no evidence whatever of any gradual movement going on at 
present either up or down, while the submerged forests show that the 
last movement on these Western coasts was downwards, not upwards ; 
and yet the argument is used by one who will not have any appeals 
to forces not in progress now, and not only so, but we also have an 
elaborate calculation as to the rate of movements based literally, so 
far as we can judge, upon no data whatever. But let us proceed. It 
is not England alone to which the main argument is applied. 
Speaking of Ireland, and of the fact that marine shell-beds have 
been found there to a height of 1000 to 1200 feet above the sea- 
level, Sir Charles Lyell says: ‘ The great elevation of these shells, 
and the still greater height to which the rocks in the mountainous 
regions of Ireland have been smoothed and striated, has led geolo- 
gists to the opinion that that island was in great part submerged 
during a portion of the Glacial period.”’ The same arguments would 
apply to Scandinavia. Now it will be granted that before we accept 
the gigantic figures presented to us by Sir Charles Lyell, we ought 
to inquire very carefully whether the cause he appeals to is com- 
petent to explain the facts. 
The first thing that strikes a critic at once is the extremely local 
character of these high-level marine drifts. They are found in 
isolated places, and only found also in places bordering on the pre- 
sent sea. This very important factor in the problem has not escaped 
Sir Charles Lyell. Speaking of the shell-beds at Moel Tryfaen and 
those in Vale Royal, he says: “The two localities are about eighty 
miles distant from each other in a straight line, and the Vale Royal 
shelly drift is near the watershed of the centre of England. Inter- 
mediate between these points there are areas varying greatly in 
height above the sea, composed of every description of rock, some- 
times covered with drift, but often free from it, and where proofs of 
marine submergence are entirely wanting. These have been surveyed 
with such care, that, but for the occasional patches before mentioned, 
