O'Reilly— 0>? the Waste of the Coast of Ireland, 8fc. 109 



in Sussex, that it is by no means improbable that the Isle of Wi^ht 

 may have been united at low-water to the adjoining coast during the 

 Eoman occupation. (It was an island in the days of Claudius)." 



(p, 483.)— He says : "The rainfall, at the beginning of the Historic 

 Period in Britain, must have been greater than it is now, because of 

 the large ex-tent of forest and morass. The sui-face of the countiy was 

 densely covered with trees." 



(This relatively greater rainfall may be taken as implying, amongst 

 other causes, a relatively greater height of the mountain parts, in the 

 interior, since such greater height would necessarily favour a greater 

 amount of condensation, and, consequently, of rainfall). 



These many extracts from Boyd Dawkin's work, and fi'om the 

 other authors mentioned, show us not merely the former varied geo- 

 gi'aphical conditions of Great Britain and Ireland, relatively to the 

 Continent and to one another, but also allow us to appreciate the 

 immense interval of time that must have elapsed since the commence- 

 ment of the Tertiaiy Period, and consequently how very small the 

 Historical Period must appear in comparison therewith, and there- 

 fore how valuable all the data that can be collected either in the 

 form of traditions, or as observations and historical records relative 

 thereto. The early traditions regarding this country, which appear in 

 O'Flaherty's " Ogygia " and in the "Annals of the Pom- Masters," 

 merit, in this respect, careful and considerate attention. 



Thus the commencing lines, " The age of the world to this year of 

 the Deluge, 2242 : Pifty days before the Deluge, Csesair came to 

 Ireland with fifty girls and three men ; Bith, Ladhi'a, and Pintain, 

 their names." 



This passage, which is fully commented on in the notes to O'Dono- 

 van's edition, from the purely scholarly and literary point of view, is 

 capable of assuming another aspect if taken in connexion with the 

 series of submergencies of lands and islands, which formed part of the 

 great northern continent, or group of islands, considered in the Eeport 

 of Messrs. Newton and Teall, "On the Lava Sheets of Pranz- Josef 

 Land," already referred to. Ireland was evidently affected by the 

 series of volcanic movements, which seem to have lasted from the 

 Miocene Period onward, and of which series Iceland is still an im- 

 portant and active centre. It may be, therefore, that the " Deluge " 

 referred to in the Annals represents the echo of a tradition from 

 Pre-Historic times of one of these sudden and catastrophic volcanic 

 movements (such as that of Krakatoa in 1883) which affected Ire- 

 land and gave rise to a remarkable depression which, if sudden and 



