Chapter 65
Lyell, and Prestwich reported in its favor. Since that time,
many discoveries of ancient implements have been made at various
places in France and England under circumstances similar to
those in the valley of the Somme. In England they have been
found along almost all the rivers in the southern and south-
eastern part. One class of discoveries there gives us new ideas
as to the extent of time that has passed since they were
deposited. That is where they occur in gravel beds having no
connection with the present system of rivers. In one case the
gravel forms a hill fifteen feet high, situated in the midst of
a swampy district, surrounded on all sides by low, flat
surfaces. Several such instances could be given; but, in all
such cases, we can not doubt that, somewhere near, there once
rolled the waters of an ancient river, that man once hunted
along its banks, and that, owing to some natural cause, the
waters forsook their ancient bed--and that since then, in the
slow course of ages, the action of running water has removed so
much of the surface of the land near there, that we can not
guess at its ancient configuration: we only know, from scattered
patches of gravel, that we are standing on the banks of an
ancient water-course.
One instance, illustrative of the great change that has come
over the surface features of the country, demanding for their
accomplishment a great lapse of time, is furnished by the Isle
of Wight. That island is now separated from the mainland by a
narrow channel, called the South Hampton Water, or the
Solent Sea.
It is now known that this is nothing but an old river channel,
in which the sea has usurped the place of the river. The coast
is a river embankment, with the usual accompaniments of gravel
beds, flint implements, and fresh water shells. On the shores of
the island we find the opposite bank of the old river. A very
great change must have taken place in the surface features
before the sea could have rolled in and cut off the Isle of
Wight from the mainland.
In speaking of the length of time demanded for this change, Dr.