and submergence did take place in this district as in others. We cannot in this little book deal with the whole of the evidence, so we will take the Southampton Dock excavations as sufficient to prove our point, condensing the account from the Geology of Southampton, published by the Geological Survey.
The general section at Southampton Docks is as follows, though the thickness varies considerably at different points, and the greatest depth of the old valley has not yet been proved:—
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|
Feet
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Estuarine silt ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… |
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20
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Peat, old vegetable soil, or tufaceous marl; ox, pig, horse, piue, beech, birch, oak, and hazel ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… |
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variable up to 17
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Gravel, with reindeer ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… |
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10 or more
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The bottom gravel is apparently of Pleistocene date, though it may include also a basement bed belonging to the newer deposits, T. W. Shore recorded from the peat above the gravel a fine stone hammer-head of Neolithic date and worked articles of bone, but no instruments of metal were found. The associated marl was full of freshwater shells.
Poole Harbour tells a similar story, and evidence of this submergence is seen in the various submerged forests found along the Dorset and Devon coasts, opposite the mouths of the valleys. These rocky coasts are, however, so different from those we have just been describing, that they will more conveniently be treated of in a separate chapter.
