Page:Submerged forests (1913).djvu/131

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VIII]
SUMMARY
117

abundantly on the lowlands of Selsey Bill, under the lee of the Isle of Wight. Probably a similar erratic- strewn plain once fringed the coast on the west also, though on the exposed side the part above the sea-level has now been entirely swept away by the sea.

I would suggest that the Stonehenge erratics, instead of being brought from any great distance, may have come from a wide plain at the mouth of the Avon, then two or three miles further seaward. From thence they were rafted far up the navigable fjord, not yet silted up, and were only carried a short distance uphill. Igneous rocks such as these, found in a country consisting essentially of chalk and Tertiary strata, would be valuable and probably endowed with magic properties, hence their employment in this inner circle.

Our next enquiry must be into the length of time represented by the series of submerged forests and associated deposits described in the foregoing pages. The newest of them belongs certainly to the age of polished stone, and the earliest also probably comes within the Neolithic Period. Within the period represented by the submerged forests, we have seen that there has been a change of the sea-level to the extent of 80 feet, or perhaps rather more. If we can obtain some measure of the time occupied, this should give us some approximate idea as to the length of