39 
Here it is that we find slight traces of man's presence. Very probably 
the savage tribes of the highlands came for the purpose of hunting these 
animals in the tangled forests, the wet bogs, and river-banks of what is 
now the West of England. 
From a careful review of the evidence afforded by the beds of the moor- 
lands of Somersetshire and the worn edges of the Mendips, and here and 
there the remains of ancient sea-beaches, together with the fact that all 
along the coasts of Somersetshire, Devonshire, Cornwall, and South Wales, 
buried forests are found covered up by silt and mud, we arrive at the 
conclusion that all the changes have been very gradual. It is probable the 
land has been in a constant state of oscillation; that once at least 
since the glacial period the surface of East Somerset was 60 or 70 
feet higher than it is now; that then the forests before-mentioned grew 
luxuriantly. The land surface afterwards has gradually declined, though 
only about 15 or 20 feet, but quite enough to expose the forests to the 
ravages of the ocean, which soon covered them up, as we now find them. 
Sections made at various places shew that sometimes the New Red 
and sometimes the Lias forms the base on which the Quarternary deposits 
are placed. For instance at Cumberland Basin, where the Avon passes 
into the Clifton chasm, a 6-foot bed of gravel lies on the new Red Marl ; 
above that, separated by a 4-foot bed of stiff brown clay, is another bed 
of gravel in which occur the antlers of the Red Deer, fresh-water Shells, 
and teeth of Rhinoceros, Horse, and well-preserved specimens of Oak. 
Just opposite Burnham and Bridgwater this fossiliferous bed lies 51 
feet below the surface. It is there covered over with three beds of peat ; 
in the lowest, 28 -feet thick, have been found human remains and pottery. 
The two upper beds have a total thickness of 23 feet. 
It appears evident, that since the glacial period there has been no sudden 
interruption in the progress of nature. Indeed the great volcanic outburst 
at the close of the Triassic period or commencement of the Liassic, which 
formed the magnificent gorges of Clifton and Cheddar, was probably the last 
natural convulsion of any consequence that took place in this neighbourhood. 
When the land rose, and the sea retreated to nearly its present level, the 
elevations that then formed islands became bare, and the perpetual washing 
of the waves produced our present varying sea-shore— sometimes low cliffs 
of the hard Carboniferous or Liassic Limestone, as at Weston, Penarth, 
and Aust, or low sloping shores of the softer Old or New Red, as near 
Portishead or Clevedon. The Somersetshire Cliffs of the Quarternary 
ocean are generally formed by Carboniferous Limestone. This Limestone 
