GUMMING ON THE ISLE OF MAN. S45 



marl is covered up in the neighbourhood by a recent marine forma- 

 tion. The greater part of the almost flat country extending from 

 near Castletown to Kirk Christ's Rushen has evidently been sub- 

 merged after the deposit of blue marl. From this blue marl on the 

 Balladoole estate, at a depth of six feet, I recently obtained the 

 portion of the right pelvis of a Megaceros, and at the same place, 

 reposing on the blue marl, we have two feet of marine sand, in 

 which, at the distance of a few hundred yards, at a spot lying 

 between Balladoole and Scarlet House, there is a complete bed of 

 recent marine shells. I consider that the submergence which buried 

 the blue alluvial marl was to the amount of at least twenty feet, as 

 the recent beds are seen at that elevation on Hango Hill, and the 

 before-mentioned spot near Scarlet, where the marine shells occur, 

 is not less. 



Should the evidence of the overthrown trees, both in the Curragh 

 and in Poolvash Bay, and the occurrence of beds of gravel in the 

 latter place (to the northwards), suggest the idea of a sudden de- 

 pression of the land, perhaps the occurrence in the south of the island 

 of beds of recent marine shells at different levels, and the appear- 

 ance of terraces in some of the southern valleys, may be looked upon 

 as evidence that the subsequent emergence was gradual, or occurred 

 at intervals. Whether the human race inhabited the island at the 

 time of the older alluvium will admit of question ; but the Elk, which 

 at any rate was then existing, may have continued as an inhabitant 

 of the hills at the time of the submergence of the lowlands, of which 

 he resumed the occupancy when the final emergence subsequently 

 took place, and those insular lakes were formed, in which (imbedded 

 in the clay marl) we find the remains of this singular animal asso- 

 ciated with the implements of human art and industry, though of an 

 uncouth and ancient character. 



Concluding Remarks. — Upon a general review of the facts which 

 have been adduced, I have now in conclusion to offer the following 

 summary. 



At the period of the deposition of the boulder formation, the 

 present Isle of Man, with the Calf of Man, must have existed as a 

 chain of certainly four, probably more than four, small islands. 

 These were, first, the Calf of Man, nearly as at present ; then to 

 the north of this an island lying between the Kitterland Strait and 

 a line running from Port-le-Murray to Port Erin ; and another or 

 third island betwixt a channel in this last direction and another 

 channel running from Douglas to Peel. A fourth island also pro- 

 bably extended to the north, as far as a curved line drawn from 

 Ramsey to Kirk Michael, the sea at that time flowing over an entire 

 area of nearly fifty square miles which now constitutes the north- 

 ern tertiary district of the present Isle of Man. 



Presuming, from the character of the fossils, that there existed a 

 climate much more excessive than that which is now met with in the 

 island, and which we may call Arctic, we have the conditiotts neces- 

 sary for the origin of the boulder clay formation in the drifting of 



