PHYSICAL CONDITIONS— PLEISTOCENE. 339 



movements that so frequently characterise a region which, like 

 that under review, is subject to volcanic action. Thus, even if 

 the proof were stronger than it is that Crete was joined directly 

 to Greece at the same time that land-passages extended from 

 Barbary to Spain, and from Tunis to Sicily and Italy, yet it 

 would be very unsafe to measure the general loss of land experi- 

 enced in the Mediterranean area since that time by the present 

 depth of the sea that lies between the island of Crete and the 

 Peloponnese. 



Turning our attention for a little to the north-western regions 

 of Europe, we find that there has been a very considerable loss 

 of land in that direction since Palaeolithic times. The evidence 

 for this is not derived entirely from the occurrence in British 

 Palaeolithic deposits of the remains of animals that were formerly 

 common to the area of our islands and the Continent ; but, as 

 we shall see presently, equally convincing proofs of the disap- 

 pearance of a wide land-area are supplied by quite another line 

 of inquiry. So far as the evidence of the old mammalia goes, we 

 need only to admit that the British Islands were united to them- 

 selves and the Continent, and an elevation of less than 400 feet 

 would suffice to restore such a connection ; for although the 

 Straits of Dover are not more than 30 fathoms deep, yet the sea 

 between Wicklow and Pembroke is not less than 50 or 55 

 fathoms in depth. But an elevation of only 400 feet would yet 

 lay dry a large part of the German Ocean and the English 

 Channel, and the remarkable configuration of the sea-bottom 

 leads us to believe that the present 100-fathom line probably 

 marks out for us the limits reached by the European coast in 

 Palaeolithic times. 1 The soundings in the British seas and off 



1 Mr. Godwin- Austen {Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc, vol. vi. p. 69) has shown 

 good grounds for believing that the old coast-line of Britain may have extended 

 as far out to sea as the present 200-fathom line, and with him Professor Prestwich 

 is inclined to agree (Phil. Trans., Part II., 1879, p. 690). I do not dispute their 

 conclusions, and am quite prepared to agree with them that the ancient coast- 

 line may now be nearer 200 than 100 fathoms under water. But as all the evi- 

 dence referred to in the text is quite explicable on the assumption of a former 

 elevation of 100 fathoms, I prefer the more limited estimate. For a former 

 elevation to that extent, at least, the proofs are as complete as we could expect. 



