We will not labour this point, which must be obvious to anyone who
has noticed how little the low terrace which still fringes great part
of the Sussex coast can resist the waves, and how quickly it is eaten
away during storms. Any restoration of our coast-line for the time of
Caesar must take these changes into account.
The material thus being removed by the attacks of the sea is partly
Pleistocene gravel, partly alluvium of later date; and the alluvial
strata with their accompanying buried land-surfaces resemble so
closely those already described that we need not linger long over
their description.
If we commence at the Strait of Dover we are immediately confronted
with clear evidence of the change of sea-level. Submerged forests are
well seen between tide-marks in Pegwell Bay, and valleys with their
seaward ends submerged and forming harbours are conspicuous in Kent.
Owing to local conditions, the valleys are mostly narrow and steep,
and the small harbours therefore soon filled up, or were lost through
the cutting back of the cliffs on either side. Possibly in Caesar’s
day good natural harbours were still in existence here.
Unfortunately on this part of the coast the study of coastal changes
has been involved in a good deal of needless obscurity. Many
writers, even geologists, make no clear distinction between loss by
submergence and loss by marine erosion. We are told, for instance,
that the Goodwin Sands were land about 900 years ago, and that this
land disappeared during an exceptional storm. We are sometimes even
told that here and elsewhere walls are still visible beneath the
sea. Popular writers, to add to the confusion, have some hazy notion
that these changes are connected with the existence of submerged
forests or “Noah’s Woods,” and that these again are evidence of a
universal deluge. The whole of the arguments are strangely tangled,
and we must try and make things a little clearer before passing on.
An understanding of the changes which have taken place on this part
of the coast is needed for historical purposes, and still more needed
if we make a study of the origin of the existing fauna and flora of
Britain.
One of the crucial questions, both for the naturalist and
archaeologist, is the date at which Britain was finally severed from
the Continent. Did this happen within the range of written history,
or tradition? Or if earlier, did it take place after or before
climatic conditions had become such as we now experience? For the
proper understanding of many different problems it is essential to
settle this point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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