THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CIIAUSEY. 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 very different degree of importance from that which 



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