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islands, Ireland probably an archipelago ; "the British Islands," 

 says Jukes Brown, " had never been so deeply submerged since 

 the commencement of Mesozoic times." Towards the end of the 

 movement, "it would seem that little of England or Wales could 

 have remained above the level of the sea." And in this sea which 

 must necessarily have been a deep one, 400 or 500 fathoms — the 

 White Chalk was deposited to the thickness of 1,300 feet in the 

 east, but much less westward, especially in Antrim because of the 

 lateness of the submergence there. At this epoch it is certain 

 that the greater part of western and southern Europe was 

 covered by an ocean which may have beea continuous from the 

 southern part of North America, across the Atlantic, and through 

 Europe into Asia." 



If I have been able at all to impress on your minds a fairly clear 

 picture of the great depression of the Biitish Isles at the time 

 when the White Chalk was being deposited, it will not be very 

 difficult to follow out the successive changes which occurred after- 

 wards. They are all due, it must be borne in mind, simply to 

 alternate upheavals and subsidences, representing the mighty 

 secular pulsations and throbbings of our globe, which seem never 

 to have ceased, and which can be detected even at the present time. 



Starting then from the times of this great Cretaceous Sea, when 

 only the very highest parts of our islands stood above water, a 

 gradual upheaval of the western portion of the European 

 continent commenced, until the greater part of the British 

 Islands emerged as one continuous area, connected with the 

 continent by way of Cornwall, Devon, and Brittany. Probably 

 the rising was more rapid to the west, for Belgium remained 

 covered long after the emergence of our own country. 

 Certainly the first parts to become land would be the mountainous 

 and hilly districts of Scotland, Ireland, and Wales ; and along the 

 shoreline no doubt fresh deposits were laid down, but if so they 

 have bee]i completely removed by denudation ; in England nothing 

 comes between the Chalk and the Eocene beds, to be referred to 

 presently. The elevation must have amounted to at least 600 feet 

 above the present level, and it was probably three or four times as 

 much. We must remember that this new land- surface was the 

 former bed of the chalk ocean, so that there would be "broad 

 plains of chalk uniting Wales to the Pennine Chain, and Ireland to 

 both England and Scotland," as well as covering all middle, 

 eastern, and southern England. And over these of course all the 

 atmospheric forces would have fi'ee play as at present ; the rains 

 fell and formed springs, these produced rivers and streams which 

 cut and carved the surface into valleys, and, assisted by frost 

 carried on the work of denudation. 



