11*2 SURMISE AS TO THE TIME. 
an extent we must ever remain ignorant. Warner 
indeed, gathering his notions from William of Wor¬ 
cester would make it appear that the irruption 
happened in the tenth century, but unfortunately, 
this latter author is not content to speak of forests 
and wild beasts on the land occurring between St. 
Michael’s Mount and the sea, but adds that there 
were 140 parish churches* in the tract of country 
which had intervened between the Mount and the 
Scilly Isles, an assertion so remarkably wild as to 
deduct at once from the importance of his evidence, f 
It would rather appear, that this elevation (sinking) 
had occurred prior to the visit of the Romans, for 
it is well established that the small vessels used by 
these people in the exportation of their metal from 
the mines of Dartmoor, came up the Plym as far as 
Plympton Castle, at the foot of which was situated 
the Roman camp. Now, if so remarkable an elevation 
of the sea (sinking of the land) had happened during 
the Roman settlement, there can be little reason to 
suppose it would have escaped the notice of their 
historians, and had it occurred after their time, it 
would surely have received still more decisive 
record. Pytheas of Marseilles, whose narrative 
dates back before the time of the Roman invasion, 
* Churches were not generally built till the time of restoration 
of peace after William the Conqueror was crowned, say about the 
year 1070. 
f A passage in Virgil refers to a similar oceanic irruption 
effecting the Italian coast,—severing a portion of land and so 
forming the Isle of Sicily and the Straits of Messina. 
“ Hsec loca vi quondam, et vasta convulsa ruina 
(Tanturn sevi longinqua valet mutare vetustas) ; 
Dissiluisse ferunt cum protinus utiaque tellus 
Una foret; venit medio vi pontus, et undis 
Hesperium Siculo latus absidit, arvaque et urbes 
Litore diductos angusto interluit eestu. 
iEneid 3rd, line 414 etc. 
