§ 58. RAISED SEA BEACH AT BRIGHTON. 113 



equal in extent to half the kingdom of France. Mrs. 

 Somerville mentions, that a further elevation to a consider- 

 able extent has also taken place along the Chilian coast, in 

 consequence of the violent earthquake of 183o. 



58. Raised sea beach at Brighton.* — Examples of 

 such changes occur in almost every part of the world, and 

 there is perhaps no considerable extent of country, which 

 does not afford some proof, that similar physical muta- 

 tions have taken place in modern times. And although we 

 have not a temple of Serapis on our shores, yet the cliffs 

 from Brighton to Rottingdean afford unquestionable evi- 

 dence that the relative level of land and sea, has undergone 

 great changes within, to speak geologically, a comparatively 

 recent period. The cliffs along the coast, from New Shore- 

 ham to Rottingdean, are composed of layers of chalk rubble, 

 with flints slightly rolled, and interspersions of clay and 

 loam ; the whole being an accumulation of water-worn 

 materials, deposited at some very remote period in an 

 estuary or bay of the sea. The base of the cliffs, to the 

 height of a few feet, consists of the chalk strata, which may 

 be seen at low water extending far out to sea, being covered 

 here and there by shingle and sand. Between the chalk 

 and the superincumbent mass above described, is a bed of 

 rolled chalk-flints, pebbles, and sand, with boulders of 

 granite, porphyry, and other rocks, foreign to the south- 

 east of England ; in fact, a sea beach, formed in the same 

 manner as the present bed of shingle which skirts the base 

 of the cliffs. Among the pebbles of this ancient beach, are 

 rolled masses of chalk and limestone, full of perforations made 

 by boring shells ; here are several specimens, with cavities 



* The geological character of the cliffs at Brighton, and the occur- 

 rence of bones of elephants and other mammalia in those beds, were 

 first described in my " Fossils of the South Downs," 1822. 



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