442 PREHISTORIC EUROPE. 



older land-surface than that which is represented by the sub- 

 marine forests of the present coast-line. 



The flora of the lower buried forest differs in no essential 

 particular apparently from that of the submarine forests and 

 layers of vegetable matter which occur above the marine and 

 estuarine beds ; and it is interesting to observe that human 

 relics and remains are found associated with both series. The 

 mammalian remains belong to those cervine and bovine animals 

 which usually accompany the postglacial and "recent peat of 

 our islands. Among the species are the Irish deer, the roebuck, 

 and the urus. It is not necessary for my purpose to go into 

 more detail. Those who wish to be fully informed upon the 

 subject will do well to consult the papers of Mr. Godwin- Austen 

 in the Geological Society's Journal, and the very full and in- 

 formative essays by Mr. Ussher, in which the reader will find 

 a complete digest of all the facts known in connection with the 

 Post-Tertiary and Eecent deposits of Cornwall. 



From the evidence, of which I have given only a meagre 

 outline, the following inferences seem to me to be fully jus- 

 tified : — 



1st, The tin-gravels, of which I have spoken in a former 

 chapter, we may consider as representative of the closing part of 

 the Glacial Period. They speak to a time when the climate was 

 more humid and probably colder than the present, and when 

 the streams had quite a torrential character ; and as the deposits 

 in question pass below the level of the sea they necessarily indi- 

 cate a former greater elevation of the land. This, however, need 

 not have been excessive. An elevation of less than 100 feet 

 would bring all the known stream-tin gravels above the reach 

 of high-water, and we have no evidence to show that the land 

 during their accumulation was any higher. 



2d, Before the growth of the lower buried forest began the 

 formation of tumultuous river-gravels and ddbris had ceased. 

 The streams, whatever they may have been doing in their upper 

 reaches, were now no longer able to carry down to low levels the 

 great boulders and coarse gravel which pave their ancient beds. 



