SURFACE AND GENERAL FEATURES 9 of St Austell which form the bolder features of the county. A remarkable depression lies between Marazion and St Ives' Bay, utilised by the railway from Hayle to Marazion road. It almost seems as if the whole of Penwith, the portion west of this trough, had at one time been an island, with a channel of sea between it and the mainland. On the other hand, at a remote Bodmin period there can be no doubt that there extended far out broad low-lying lands which are now covered by the sea, for forest beds have been found in Mounts Bay, in Padstow Bay, at St Columb Major, and elsewhere, showing that there has been a subsidence of the land. This has given rise to the fable of a drowned realm of Lyonesse, but this Lyonesse never existed in or near Cornwall ; it was Lon
