268 THE (QUESTION OF SiriJSlDEN'CE 



fact that tlie intervals betvv^eeii posts were planked and walled 

 with stones. If we have an unusually low tide, however, we 

 can see a most interesting exposure. A structure of close-faced 

 cribwork presents itself. I should prefer to call the structure 

 cellular since the intersections of axe-hewn timber are at inter- 

 vals of about three feet, and a ledge of concrete still remains in 

 the beach overlying the timber structure. 



The cribwork structure above referred to will be found to 

 have two faces presented seaward forming an angle of about 

 125 degrees, and the apex of this angle is at present som what 

 below the level of the lowest tide. 



The lines of posts above referred to are continuations of 

 these sides ; and extending from the apex along the face of the 

 structure towards the west is a row of piles of round timber 

 driven as closely as possible to one another. This, in brief, is 

 wdiat remains of the " La Greve " or Beach Battery. 



Turning again to the Atlantic coast we find a line of post- 

 stubs similar to those existing at the site of the Beach Battery, 

 lying between the Prince's Bastion and the sea, and continuing 

 its zig-zags northerly towards the Bourillon Bastion, and for 

 some distance southerly towards Black Rock ; and oppo.site the 

 extremity of the moat which fronts the Princes Bastion are still 

 to be seen in the beach the planks which formed the sluicov/ay 

 by which the waters of the moat escaped into the Atlantic 

 Ocean, and if the moat were in practical use today that sluice- 

 way is sufficiently far above tide level to perform the service 

 for which it was originall}^ intended. Owing to the fact that 

 the ground originally at the point referred to was quite low, 

 and that the ground had evidently been taken from a distance 

 to raise the glacis, it is obvious that there existed a necessity 

 for leaving as small a margin as possible between the bottom 

 of the sluiceway and ordinary hujJi tide mark. '^* This, to my 



(1) The Vaubon system of fortiflcat.ion usurl by the French, detn.indetl a nio.st 

 pedantic and fiKed proportion between heights and slopes of glacis and main work, so 

 I suspect the moat was made at as low a level as possible There i.; a similar French 

 moat at Mauritiin where there has been no subsidence.— Major O. C, Williamson, K. A. 



