108 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



"The depression of land tM-ongliout Great Britain and Ireland 

 since tie trees flourished cotild not have been less than fi'om 30 to 40 

 feet. The ten-fathom line, therefore, considered by Sir H^ de la 

 Beche to he roughly the boundary of the land at that time, may 

 be taken to represent the sea margin (of that time) 'with tolerable 

 accuracy." 



(p. 254.) — " This forest gro-u-th is proved to belong to the Neolithic 

 division of the Pre-Historic Period by the presence of animals originally 

 domestic, and introduced by the jSTeolithic tribes, the Celtic short- 

 horn, and the sheep or goat, as well as by the absence of the Pleisto- 

 cene Mammals." 



(p. 256.) — He cites Dr. Jas. Geikie's work on the geography and 

 climate of Xorth Britain: — " "Wlien these buried trees darkened the 

 now bleak islands (Orkneys and Shetland) with their greenery, the 

 land stood at a higher level and the neighbouring ocean at a greater 

 distance. To have permitted this strong forest growth we ai'e com- 

 pelled to admit a fonner elevation of the land, and a corresponding 

 retreat of the ocean. 



" The same inference may be drawn from the facts disclosed by 

 the mosses of Ireland and England. On the coasts of France and 

 Holland peat dips under the sea and along these bleak maritime 

 regions of Xorway, where now-a-days the pine tree will hardly grow, 

 we find peat mosses, which contain the remains of full-gi'own trees, 

 such as are only to be met with in districts much further removed 

 fi'om the influence of the sea." (See " Great Ice Age," c. xxvi.) 



(p. 263.) — He says : " Such changes in the Mammalia and in the 

 -g-eography of Great Britaia (and Ireland), in the inteiwal separating 

 the Pleistocene from the Pre-Historic Period, coidd not have taken 2)lace 

 ill a short time ; and when we reflect that comparatively little change 

 has taken place in this country during the last 2000 years, it is 

 obvious that the one period is separated fi'om the other by a lapse of 

 many centuries, of how many we cannot tell." 



(p. 265.) — He says : "It may be concluded that the former period 

 was, beyond calculation, longer than the latter." 



(p. 482.) — He says: "Britain, at the begiiming of the historic 

 period, differed considerably fr-om the Britain of to-day, although 

 there is no reason to suppose that any vertical movements have altered 

 the relation of sea to land. The dash of the waves for the last 1900 

 years has destroyed lar-ge tracts of land, where cliffs are composed of 

 soft and iacoherent materials. The inroads of the sea on the south 

 coast have been so gr-eat, in some places, such as Pevensey and Payham, 



