Even Southampton Water and the Solent themselves are nothing but submerged valleys. A well at the Horse Sand Fort—one of the iron forts which rises out of the sea at Spithead—showed a band of compressed vegetable matter, probably an old land-surface, more than 50 feet below high-water level, the floor of Eocene strata not being met with till 98 feet below high water was reached. In this case, however, the strata below 50 feet seem, from the published description, to be of marine origin. The well at Norman Fort is stated to have penetrated to a depth of 127 feet below the sea before Eocene strata were reached; but in this case the lower strata were of marine origin, and the only land animal recorded was a jaw of red deer, found apparently between 80 and 90 feet down. These deep channels may be relics of the very ancient (Tertiary) Solent River, and were probably arms of the sea till they were sufficiently silted up for the lowest submerged forest to grow. We have not yet sufficient data, nor is it necessary to our purpose, to give a detailed reconstruction of this interesting area during the successive stages of elevation and depression. During the time when the lowest of the submerged forests flourished the Isle of Wight was connected with the mainland where the Solent now narrows about Yarmouth, and probably for some distance westward. This connexion was kept up till comparatively recent times, only breaking down finally a short time before Caesar’s invasion. In early Neolithic times the ancient Solent Valley had already been decapitated by the inroads of the sea west of the Needles, and the remains of this big valley were occupied by a small river flowing eastward through the middle of the present Solent. In its course it received numerous tributaries on either side. It probably opened out into an estuary where it joined Southampton Water, and so continued to and beyond Spithead, receiving other tributaries from the valleys now occupied by Portsmouth Harbour, Langston Harbour and Chichester Harbour. In time we may be able to make a more complete reconstruction of the physical geography of this area for definite dates; but the point now to be insisted on is that the Isle of Wight was part of the mainland up to quite recent times, so that its fauna and flora could readily pass backwards and forwards without crossing the sea. Perhaps to the geographer or geologist one of the most striking confirmations of a recent submergence affecting this part of England will be found in the strange series of enclosed harbours extending from Chichester westward to Fareham. These harbours are not each distinct and separate; all of them have cross connexions in the form of shallower channels some four or five miles inland from Spithead. I have often been asked what is the meaning and origin of these peculiar harbours, which are not forming or widening now, but rather tend to silt up.