690 
PROFESSOR PRESTWICH ON THE ORIGIN 
of a body of ice in the present sea-channel, renders it almost certain that the land at 
this period extended much further westward into the Atlantic area.'"' 
Mr. R. A. C. GoDWiN-AusTENt so far hack as 1849 came to the conclusion, on evidence 
of an entirely different order, that the bed of the English Channel “ was in the condition 
of dry land previous to its occupation by the waters of the pleistocene sea, or during 
the period of the pliocene (crag) accumulations of the German basin, and that, together 
with a large area beyond, it served to connect the British Islands with France on the 
south, and Ireland on the west, into a tract which had a far greater amount of eleva¬ 
tion than any portion of it has at present” (p. 94); and further, he remarks that 
“ the period of the terrestrial conditions of greatest cold over the area of Great 
Britain would therefore be, when it was part of an area, of much greater extent, and 
at a much greater elevation ” (p. 95). 
He shows that there is not only evidence of a marginal line of coast at depths 
of from 50 to 60 fathoms, but there is also on the western slope of the Little Sole 
Bank, where the sea bed falls rapidly from the 100 to the 200 fathom lines, evidence 
of a still greater former elevation, in the fact that on these slopes large perfect, though 
decayed, shells of littoral species, such as Littorina littorea, Patella vulgata, &c., and 
shell-sand are found, whence he infers “ that we have at this place the indication of a 
coast-line of no very distant geological period, buried under a great depth of water, 
and removed to a great distance from the nearest present coast-line.” 
On the west coast of Scotland the excessive glaciation of all the sea lochs and 
islands point to the westward flow of the great ice-sheet, descending from the water¬ 
shed of the Ben Nevis and other mountain ranges of the Highlands, over ground then 
above the present sea-level, to a more distant sea; and both Professor A. GeikieJ 
and Dr. J. Geikie§ have argued from several considerations, and especially from the 
contours of the sea-bed between the Scottish, North of England, and Irish coasts, that 
there is reason to infer the surface even far “ under low-water mark has been dressed 
and moulded by the ice-sheetthat the bed of the Irish Channel was then above the 
sea; and that the country stood considerably higher above the sea than now—a height 
estimated by the latter at not less than 600 feet. 
I am, however, disposed to think with Mr. Godwin-Austen that the old coast-line 
may more probably have been nearer to the 200 fathom contour, as, so far, the levels 
are regular and continuous ; but beyond that line the soundings suddenly become 
very deep and irregular. He sees in the slopes lines of old land escarpments (p. 86). 
The map which accompanies Mr. G or.) win - Austex’s paper shows also that the 
* In addition to the cases mentioned by other observers, I have fonnd ice-striae running horizontally 
along’ the face of the hills fronting the sea near Harlech, and again at the extreme soutli-west point of 
Wales similar striae may be seen running (S. 17° W.) out to sea at Whitesand Bay, near St. David’s. 
t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., vol. vi., p. 69. 
J Op. tit., p. 96. * * * § 
§ ‘ The Great Ice Age,’ 2nd edit., p. 292, 
