O. A. Lehour — On the Submergence of Is. 



301 



cannot grant as much importance as Chanoine Moreau seems to 

 attach to it. 4. That the church at Lanval on the coast (now in 

 ruins) had the following saying attached to it : " that sixty scarlet 

 cloaks (these were the big-wigs), without counting others, used to 

 come from Is to mass at Lanval," and that a common saying was, 

 " Is ne cavas par da Paris," " Since Is, nothing has been seen like 

 Paris." This last I have myself heard the natives say repeatedly. 



These data, therefore, all point to the existence of Is, and to the 

 general truth of the legend, and can scarcely be explained otherwise. 

 If there did exist such a town in such a situation, then there must 

 have been a considerable depression of the coast of Western Brittany 

 at least in early Christian times, and traces of such an occurrence 

 should be discernible somewhere along the coast. With the view of 

 ascertaining whether this was the case or not, I, during one of my 

 later sojourns in the district, carefully explored the whole of the 

 Western coast of the department of Finistere. The result is, I think, 

 quite in accordance with the tradition, and renders it at once possible 

 and probable. 



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Sketch-Map of Part of Coast of Finistere. 

 The dotted line shows the approximate coast-line in the time of Is. 



On the shores of the bay itself, and in the Eade de Brest, no 

 signs of any comparatively recent subsidence were observed. On 

 doubling the Bec-ar-Raz, however, and following the coast in a 

 Southerly direction, past the beautiful stretch of beach which skirts 

 the broad Bay d'Audierne, the ruined churches and other buildings 

 of the sacked towns of Penmarch and Kerity afford some evidence 

 of being nearer the sea than they originally were, or, in other 

 and more proper words, of the sea having gradually encroached 



