94 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Juiie 13, 



haps the strongest argument is from the presence of the Pinus syl- 

 vestris : its natural zone of growth, requisite condition of soil, great 

 susceptibility of the influence of sea-air, alike point to the improba- 

 bihty of its haying grown in masses, or attained any size, in the yicinity 

 of the sea. 



The conclusion we may safely arriye at is, that the area of the 

 present English Channel was in the condition of dry land preyious to 

 its occupation by the waters of the pleistocene sea, or during the 

 period of the phocene (crag) accumulations of the German basin, and 

 that, together with a large area beyond, it seryed to connect the 

 British Islands with France on the south, and Ireland on the west, 

 into a tract which had a far greater amount of eleyation than any 

 portion of it has at present. 



The geologist will require that many conditions resulting from such 

 a state of things should haye left their eyidences. At many places 

 along the shores of the Channel, thick accumulations of earthy ma- 

 terials come down to the sea-ley el. The western coast affords the best 

 opportunities for studying these beds. The bold coast-hne from the 

 Start Point westwards presents a yellow band rising from the line of 

 high-water, and which might at first sight be taken for a hue of raised 

 marine beds : from the Start to the Prawle this bed expands in thick- 

 ness, and forms a low cliff of loose uncemented materials upwards, 

 of twenty feet thick. The whole of this accumulation is the result 

 of the djsiutegration of the rocks of the district : throughout the 

 whole thickness of the mass, but without any defined arrangement, 

 occur fragments and angular blocks of all sizes, some containing seyeral 

 cubic feet. The accumulation is strictly local ; along the whole of this 

 line of section the angular fragments haye eridently been detached 

 from the chlorite slate precipices which oyerhang it, nor does it afford 

 a single pebble which would indicate attrition by water. 



Following these beds to the mouth of the Erme, they are found on 

 either side of the entrance, aboye the high-water leyel, whilst inland 

 it is clearly seen that the area of the present estuary has been ex- 

 cayated out of this accumulation. 



In eyery one of the Channel Islands group a hke accumulation 

 comes down to the sea-leyel, and from the more rapid disintegration 

 of the crystalline rocks, its thickness is often yery great. Here again 

 we meet with repeated illustrations of the local character of the accu- 

 mulation, that the angular blocks haye merely fallen from masses of 

 rock immediately aboye, without the shghtest indication of horizontal 

 moyement. 



These accumulations are due to subaerial conditions, continued 

 through a yast lapse of time, and dating back to periods long anterior to 

 the present relatiye position of land and sea. The thickness of these 

 beds increases westwards, and as atmospheric agency is greater as 

 the eleyation of the land on which it is exercised increases, it adds 

 one more argument to many others in fayour of the yiew, that at the 

 period of greater eleyation that of the west of England was most 

 considerable. 



In the foregoing considerations, which the study of the area of the 



