438 H. S. Howorth — Tracer of a Great Post-Olacial Flood. 



Again, the gravels are found capping the cliff at various lieigbts 

 up to at least 100 feet, which would require that the river should 

 have once flowed at a much higher level. If the level of the gravel 

 had been tolerably uniform, this might have been said ; but as it 

 follows the contour of the rolling surface running down the Chines, 

 and along the crest of the highest ground, it is difficult to see how 

 a river could have deposited it. In walking from Bournemouth to 

 Poole the position may be studied with the greatest clearness. On 

 the easterly side of Poole Harbour the gravels are deposited almost 

 at the sea-level, while near Bournemouth they rise to over 100 feet 

 above the sea-level. I walked over the ground with great care in 

 many directions, and everywhere with this fluviatile theory in view, 

 and was everywhere impressed with the fact that unless a running- 

 stream can run uphill as well as down, and can follow a rolling 

 surface independent altogether of the drainage of the country, that 

 it would be literally impossible for a river to deposit these gravels. 

 It may be said that the whole section has been since disturbed, and 

 that the rolling contour has been given to the country since the 

 deposition of the gravels. Of this not only is there no evidence, 

 but the evidence is entirely the other way. The greatly extended 

 accumulation of gravel that occurs on the sides of the Chines, and 

 the general absence of twisted or curved lines of stratification in the 

 subjacent strata, make it clear that the gravel, whatever the cause 

 of its distribution, was spread over a surface whose contour was 

 practically the same as that the country has now. 



Again, whence could such a mass of uniform gravel have been 

 derived ? The river, as postulated by those who make the gravel 

 fluviatile, must assuredly have been a considerable river. Where in 

 any considerable European river do we find gravel deposited in this 

 way ? In the Rhine, the Rhone, the Elbe, the Dwina, the Po, the 

 Don, and the Volga, the deposit is almost entirely that of a fine mud, 

 such as forms the greater part of known Deltas ; but here we have 

 a river extending for at least 200 miles, and depositing angular 

 gravel all the way. Whence was the material derived ? If it be the 

 product of denudation of the river channel itself, how comes it that 

 the channel is choked with gravel ? A river cannot at the very same 

 place scoop out chalk and lay down flints ; a very small layer of 

 gravel immediately protects the strata on which it rests from denu- 

 dation. Mere local patches could be easily accounted for, but a 

 continuous mantle from 6 to 18 feet deep, and uniform in texture, 

 whether overlying Cretaceous or Tertiary beds, is a very different 

 thing. Again, such a river must have been of enormous size. So 

 long as we keep our eyes on the Solent, and find both sides of it 

 occupied with similar gravel, we may speak of a river of modest 

 proportions ; but when we find that this gravel is found not merely 

 on both sides of the Solent, but on both sides of the English Channel, 

 and extends in France from Sangatte to the Cotentin, we are 

 taken aback when told that such gigantic proportions have ever 

 been attained by sxty European river. Where was the drainage 

 area for such a river, which can be compared for size only with the 



