1916.] 



CONCLUSION. 



407 



there remains an interval of tens of thousands of years, while 

 the whole of the later-palaeolithic stages were going on 

 elsewhere, that we can see no trace of here. 



Another point worth dwelling on is the want of evidence 

 of the minor changes of recent times. The surface of the 

 island is not that on which the Neolithic men walked. In few 

 places does that remain. The loss of soil due to cultivation, 

 to rain and weathering, has brought us down to the lower or 

 upper clay, as the case may be, and our deep ploughs do not 

 now turn up the rich dark forest soil that they used to do ; 

 there is now stiff yellow clay which is not suitable for any crops 



The farmers call it "jaune 



but cereals and large roots, 

 terre." 



This may lead to larger finds of implements of the 

 Mousterian stage. 



I have prepared a diagram of the movements of sea-level, 

 but it does not show the hiatus I have spoken of, nor can it 

 show the minor oscillations the deposits of which are under 

 the sea. 



Diagram Ng. 15. 

 Representing the ehanges of Sea-Level during the Pleistocene period. 



r5~woo\ — - - 



No. 1.— The Raised-Beach period. 



No. 2.— The Submergence following No. 1. 



No. 3.-The Emergence representing the commencement of the glacial condi- 

 tions and marked by the frost-riven rocks. 



No. 4.— The Submergence due to the weight of ice over the British Isles. 

 Period of maximum glaciation. 



Nos. 4 to 6.— The Mousterian Period retirement of first glaciation, a subse- 

 quent elevation and approach of the second glaciation. 



td . No f- 6 to 8. —Hiatus of unknown length covered on the Continent by late 

 Paloeohthic times. Not represented here. 



No. 9 — The Submerged Forest Period. Neolithic remains. 



No. 10.— Commencement of historical times. 



T S.— Total Submergence of the Island. 



T J ,5'-~£ . tal Emergence of the Island. 



P S.— Points of Stability. 



N.B.— Emergences and Submergences 1 to 7, extended above and below the 

 perpendicular extent of the Island, therefore not shown. 



It will be noted that the " points of stability " are near 

 the centre of the oscillations and evidently mark the mean 

 position of the sea-level throughout the Pleistocene Period. 



