544 



ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, CORNWALL. 



[Ch. XX. 



matter 



stratum 



ebb permits, and it implies the downward movement of a level 

 tract which preserved its horizontally when subsiding. If 

 we endeavour to form a conjecture as to the probable date 

 of such, a submergence, we find ourselves involved in a geolo- 

 gical enquiry of vast extent, although so modern as to be 



comprised within the human 

 Devonshire, there 



Thus at Torquay in 



much 



from 



neighbourhood of Tor Abbey, at a height of about eighty- 

 four feet above the sea, for three quarters of a mile to the 



shore . The 



same 



ward, many stumps and roots of trees bem 



hxed in the clay, and in the peat, bones of the deer, wild- 



longifi 



with 



Mr 



7 



having several cuts on it made by a sharp instrument, and 



C. .J ____ 



the whole fashioned into a tool for piercing. From this fo- 

 rest-bed, at a point in the bay where there is a depth of more 



ermen 

 molar 



moth 



nimal matter 



condition being probably due to the antiseptic quality of the 



^ • i 



peat. The 



specimen 



» 



b 



mam 



moth 



^ 



acquired its present configuration, so far as relates to the 

 direction and depth of the valleys in the bottom of one of 

 which the peat alluded to was formed. I mention these facts 

 to show that submarine forests on this coast cannot be safely 

 appealed to in confirmation of changes which may have 



may 



occurred in the historical period. They 



close of the paleolithic era, although long subsequent to the 



Kent's Hole 



Tor- 



filling of the caves of Brixham and 

 quay, when the elephant, rhinoceros, and cave-bear co- 

 existed with man, before the excavation of some of the valleys 

 which now descend to the sea on this coast. 



To return to Cornwall : the oldest historians mention a 









. 



■ 



