362 the Emergence. 



is the cause of the constant need of the renewal of the 

 sea-walls and the recurring inundations of our low lands.) 

 The evidence of a rising sea-level is therefore to be found 

 in the rock platforms, beaches, caves and cliffs. 



(c) A falling sea-level on the other hand washes off 

 the land margins, the accumulations resulting from the 

 former rising sea, removing these to lower levels, but 

 adding no new material to the shore above its level. 

 When the sea-level is falling off, irregular land like the 

 Vale, the tops of the hougues are deprived of the softer 

 muds and clays which have settled on them, and the tops 

 are left with the harder deposits or rock faces which the 

 sea has not had power enough to remove. 

 Thus a rising sea-level is marked by beaches and a falling 

 one is not. When, therefore, the land rises from a submer- 

 gence only a remnant of the deposits formed by the rising sea 

 is left to tell the tale. 



The deposits resting on the island, however, would not 

 be as thick as nearer the high continental land, for it would be 

 lessened by the situation of the island and its small size. By 

 the time the depositing waters reached Guernsey they would 

 have already dropped all the heaviest material and the island 

 would be the recipient of a soft, fine, easily suspended mud 

 which w^ould rest on the surfaces of our land so lightly that 

 the sea during the emergence would not only have plenty time 

 to wash it away, when disturbed by wave action, but by 

 keeping it suspended in consequence of its motion, would 

 carry the suspended mud as far from the island as it had 

 previously brought it. Thus it follows that the island Avould 

 not permanently hold any deposit it had acquired. 



It may be asked whether the rate of the emergence Avould 

 be such as would make it possible for the process of denuda- 

 tion to take place as described. Of course, in reasoning, one 

 must be influenced by the facts. The deposited mud is not 

 found on the island. It must have been deposited. There- 

 fore, it is logical to assume that it has been washed away. 



The Geological authors I have consulted are so uncertain 

 as to the number of submergences, the number of glaciations 

 and the mode of the formation of the glacial deposits that I 

 cannot decide between them, and must be content w r ith putting 

 my evidence forward and the impressions I derive from it, 

 and leave the future to sift out the truth. 



Assuming the correctness of the deductions just set forth, 

 we have now to consider the emergence from the point of 

 climate. 



