BEACHES, ETC., OE THE SOUTH OF ENGLAND. 305 



It has also been suggested that after the Beach formation the 

 land was elevated to the extent of 2000 feet or more, and in 

 accordance with that supposition it has been concluded that the 

 whole area of the Bristol and English Channels was then trans- 

 formed into dry land which afforded pasture-grounds for the large 

 mammalian fauna of this late Cave period. The submarine forests 

 so common on our coasts have been adduced as proofs of that eleva- 

 tion. But these sunken forests are not contemporary with the Caves. 

 They belong, as I have shown in another part of this paper, to 

 a subsequent period, and they are moreover limited to moderate 

 depths. There is no well-recorded instance of any submarine forests 

 occurring at a greater depth than about 100 feet, so that on these 

 grounds alone there is no reason to believe that the sea-bed much 

 beyond that depth was raised, or that the whole of the area of the 

 English and Bristol Channels was transformed into dry land. On 

 the contrary, such evidence as we have — namely, that afforded by 

 the Blown Sands — would lead us to limit the level of the land after 

 the elevation of the Eaised Beaches to a height not exceeding 120 

 feet or so; for these sands could scarcely have attained the dimen- 

 sions they have — and it must be remembered that they have under- 

 gone considerable denudation — had they been blown to greater 

 heights. It is true that shore sands may be blown inland over 

 hills higher than this,^ but they then occur merely as a thin 

 covering. Even, however, such an elevation as 120 feet would 

 convert a great part of the Bristol Channel into dry land, and would 

 give a broad fringe of land to the English Channel. (See Map, 

 PL VIII.) 



What is needed for the massing of blown sands is a wide strand 

 left dry at low water and exposed to the action of strong winds. 

 This must have been for a considerable time the condition of the 

 coasts of Cornwall and Devon after the first uplift of the Beaches, 

 while on the coast of South Wales the cliffs may have stood farther 

 inland and been less exposed to the drifting sands. As these 

 sands lie, on the one side of the Channel, between the Raised 

 Beaches and the Head, whilst on the other side the Cave-deposits 

 occupy the same position, it follows that these two deposits are 

 synchronous ; and further, as the Head forms the closing chapter 

 of Palseolithic and post-Glacial times, this group of Cave animals is 

 the last one of the Pleistocene fauna, with the exception of that 

 of the Rubble-drift. 



Dr. Ealconer therefore was right in his conclusion "that the 

 Gower caves have probably been filled up with their mammalian 

 remains since the deposition of the Boulder Clay," but whether 

 there are no " mammalian remains found elsewhere in the ossiferous 

 caves of Britain referable to a fauna of a more ancient geological 

 date"^ may admit of a doubt. Dr. Ealconer's list (with some 



^ In the Boulonnais they are found on a hill 400 feet high, but only as a thin 

 sprinkling ; see my ' Greology/ vol. i. p. 146. 

 2 ' Palagont. Memoirs,' vol. ii. p. 535. 



