THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHAUSEY. 21 



of value to this popular belief; and the vegetable 

 strata, known under the name of submarine forests, 

 which occur in the vicinity of Mount St. Michael, 

 appear to afford it full confirmation. When a violent 

 tempest breaks upon the shore and upheaves the sur- 

 face these ancient deposits, which are habitually 

 covered with mud or white sand, sometimes come to 

 view. Whenever this occurs the fine sands dis- 

 appear beneath a blackish earth, which encloses 

 entire trees, ranged in a uniform direction, in strata, 

 above one another. The various species are easily 

 distinguished ; of these the oak, the yew, and the 

 birch are the most common. The trunks of these 

 trees seem first to have been reduced to a state of 

 mould, and subsequently, on exposure to the air, to 

 have regained consistency of texture and to have 

 acquired a darker shade of colour. The oak espe- 

 cially exhibits the hardness and shining black tinge 

 of ebony ; and hence it is employed for the same 

 purposes and used in the manufacture of ornamental 

 furniture. These trees rest upon a soil which appears 

 to have been meadow-land. We find among them 

 reeds, grasses, ferns, &c. All these plants are in 

 their natural positions, and have preserved all their 

 most delicate parts ; the reeds still contain a light 

 medullary pith, and the roots of the ferns exhibit the 

 delicate loose ' downy hairs with which they are 

 covered during the period of their vegetation. 



Whatever may have been the ancient relations 

 subsisting between the Chausey isles and the main- 

 land, the archipelago certainly, at one time, enjoyed 

 a \erj different degree of importance from that which 



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