XVIII. On the evidences of a submergence of Western Europe, and of the Mediterranean coasts, at the close of the glacial or so-called post-glacial period, and immediately preceding the neolithic or recent period

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Abstract
In a paper read before the Geological Society early this year, I gave the evidence—the result of personal observation—which led me to conclude that the South of England had been submerged to the depth of not less than about 1000 feet between the Glacial (or Post-glacial) and the recent or Neolithic periods. That evidence was based upon the characters, physical and palæontological, of a peculiar superficial drift, for which I proposed the term of "Rubble-drift,” to distinguish it from the valley, marine, and glacial drifts of the same districts. Under this term I include various detrital deposits to which different designations have been attached. Amongst the more important of these are the drift called “head” over the Raised Beaches of the Channel and the Ossiferous Fissures of South Devon. Various explanations have been suggested to account for the “head,” such as, 1st, an excessive rainfall, accompanied by great cold; 2nd, the sliding of masses of snow and ice over slopes; 3rd, waves of translation; 4th, torrential fluviatile action during a period of great cold. I have stated in the paper referred to the objections to these several explanations. Some of them, no doubt, would suffice to produce a portion of the observed effects, but they fail to embrace the whole, and they all involve consequences which are incompatible with the general facts. They all, also, with one exception, depend on subaërial agencies, to which there is the general objection that these agencies involve a certain amount of friction and weathering which are conspicuously wanting—or, if present, it is in a very slight degree—in the deposits under review. There is the further objection that some of the phenomena indicate the exercise of a propelling force for which the suggested causes are manifestly inadequate. There are other points, apparently inconsistent with such agencies, connected more especially with the Ossiferous fissures and the Loess of the continental area, which will be considered more fully in the following pages.

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