Geological Survey of the Island of Jersey. 371 



the winds : this is particularly the case in St. Owen's Bay, 

 where a considerable tract (called Les Quenvais) has been thus 

 ruined. Tradition (for no authentic records can be procured, 

 as those of the Jersey States hardly reach to an earlier period 

 than 1500) states, that an inroad of the sea overwhelmed a 

 large extent of ground in this quarter ; and that the sand, no 

 longer kept in check by its old barrier (a wood of oak trees), 

 swept over the space marked q, q, q, until checked by the St. 

 Aubin brook ; stumps of oak trees, generally in good preserva- 

 tion, are found lying in the sands near L'Etac. This circum- 

 stance of a stream of water, however inconsiderable, arresting 

 the progress of the sands, is further illustrated at Greve de Lecq, 

 and at St. Perranzabuloe, in Cornwall. Might it be turned to 

 account at Bayonne, where the encroachment of the Dunes is 

 so very formidable ? The Quenvais originally extended as far 

 St. Peter's Church, still controlled by the brook. Much, 

 however, of this ground has been reclaimed by the persevering 

 industry of the Jersey farmer. In one instance pointed out, 

 a tract of sand-hills, only levelled five years since, now pro- 

 duces parsnips and mangel-wurzel of the largest size, and 

 lucerne, in a soil of no greater depth than that of six inches, 

 formed of vraic (sea weed) and such vegetable mould as could 

 be collected. The black mould, overwhelmed by the sand, and 

 forming the original surface of the ground, varies from two to 

 three feet in depth. Some of it has been cleared and dressed 

 with vraic, or lime, at the rate of four hogsheads per acre, but 

 the expense has been found too great. 



The soil on the island is generally very fertile ; the best lies 

 in the central parts included by a belt reaching about one mile 

 inland from the sea-coast. Of this central tract, that on the 

 argillaceous schist, by all that I could collect, is of a lighter 

 cast, and, on the whole, inferior to that on the felspar rocks. 

 The soil at Trinity ranks first ; it is a stifF loam, which, for 

 agricultural purposes, is ploughed up with sea sand and the 

 gravel from the decomposed sienite. The tract on the green 

 porphyry round St. Saviour's, that about La Hogue Bie and 

 St. Clement's, are in the next best estimation. 



