The Evolution of a Coast-line: Barrow to Aberyst-wyth and the Isle of Man, with Notes on Lost Towns, Submarine Discoveries, etc

Abstract

THE author gathers every possible kind of evidence to prove that there has been a widespread downward tendency in the land levels of the western coast of Britain, which has continued from a beginning, one gathers, after Neolithic times. He has read widely and with profit, though not always with discrimination, but his book will be of value to students, especially if they also have Sinel's “Geology of Jersey” to consult alongside it. The coast is considered section by section with, frequently, a popular geological introduction. The author works out a conjectural map of some ancient coast-lines, such as that of Cardigan Bay, which he suggests was once all lowland, and the land of the famous story of the Lowland Hundred or Cantref y Gwaelod retold by T. L. Peacock in “The Misfortunes of Elphin.” In this he is almost certainly right in the main, though some of the scraps of evidence quoted are conjectural, and it is doubtful whether enough is allowed, either in this section or in others, for the consolidation, with the lapse of time, of the boulder clay which formed the main part of the lost lowlands. It is rightly stated that there has been distinct loss of land within historic times, but protection at the public expense is difficult, because the public does not appropriate land gained from the sea, and this, in the last thirty-five years, has been more than seven times the land lost. Even on the west coast gains have counterbalanced losses. The reproductions of old maps and prints are a valuable feature of the book.