| Ranunculus Flammula | Ajuga reptans |
| ” repens | Sueda maritima |
| ” sceleratus | Atriplex patula |
| Viola | Rumex |
| Malachium aquaticum | Urtica dioica |
| Stellaria media | Alnus glutinosa |
| Lychnis Flos-cuculi | Corylus Avellana |
| Rubus fruticosus | Quercus robur |
| Callitriche | Alisma Plantago |
| Cornus sanguinea | Ruppia maritima |
| Sambucus nigra | Eleocharis palustris |
| Aster Tripolium | Scirpus Tabernaemontani |
| Solanum Dulcamara | Carex 3 sp. |
In this list, as is usually the case with the newest submerged forest, we find only plants that are still living in the immediate neighbourhood. Also, only such plants as are widely distributed are here found as fossils, the characteristic west-country flora being unrepresented. The reason of this limitation will be discussed later.
For various reasons, which will be explained later, it will be well before describing the submerged land-surfaces of Cornwall and the Atlantic coast, to complete the account of those surrounding our enclosed seas. We will therefore take next those bordering on the English Channel.
CHAPTER VI
THE ENGLISH CHANNEL
The English Channel, like our other enclosed seas, is bordered on either side by a fringe of ancient alluvia and submerged forests, which however are fast disappearing through the attacks of the waves. The destruction is so rapid, and in many parts has been so complete, that we are apt to forget how altered is the appearance of the English coast. Even so recently as the time of Caesar’s invasion flat muddy shores or low gravelly plains occupied many parts of the coast where we now see cliffs and rocky ledges.
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.