118 Proceedings of the Royal TrisJi Academy. 



converting slopes into cliffs, Tvhere it is not silting up flat areas from 

 Breaji Dovrn to a considerable distance nortliwards. JS'ear Weston 

 tbe sea is foiToiag a line of cliffs on tlie iiortli--svestem side of 

 "Weorle Hill. At Bembeck cove its encroacliments iiave disclosed, 

 or rather nearly destroyed, the last reninants of a genuine raised 

 teach." 



Professor John Ehys, ii.A., of Oxford, in his " Celtic Folklore of 

 Wales and Isle of [Man," has some interesting legends as regards the 

 ■waste on the Welsh coast, in vol. ii., p. 401, under the heading, 

 " Triunqylis of'ilxe Water World.'''' He says : " ]\Iore than once in 

 the last chapter Tvas the suhject of submersions and cataclysms brought 

 before the reader, and it may be convenient to enumerate here the 

 most remarkable cases, not to mention that one of my informants had 

 something to say (p. 219, vol. i.) of the submergence of Caer Aiiairrhod, 

 a rock now visible only at lov-vrater between Celynnog Eawx and 

 Dinas Dintte, on the coast of Ai-fon ; but, to put it briefly, it is an 

 ancient belief in the principality that its lakes generally have swallovred 

 up habitations of men.' 



(p. 403.) — " Perhaps it is best to begin vdth historical events, 

 namely, those implied in the encroachment of the sea and the sand, on 

 the coast of Glamorganshire, from Mumbles in G-ower to the mouth of 

 the Ogmore, below Bridgend. It is believed that formerly the shores 

 of Swansea Bay were from three to four miles further out than the 

 present strand, and the oyster-dredges point to that pari; of the bay, 

 which they call the " Green Grounds," while ti-awlers, hovering over 

 these sunken meadows of the Grove Islands, declare that they can 

 sometimes see the foundations of the ancient homesteads, overwhelmed 

 by a terrific storm which raged some three centuries ago. The old 

 people sometimes talk of an extensive forest, called Coed Avian 

 ('Silver Wood'), stretching from the foreshore of the Mumbles to 

 Kenfig Burroughs, and there is a tradition of a long lost bridle-path 

 u£ed by many generations of Mansels, ITowbrays, and Talbots, from 

 Penrice Castle to Margam Abbey. All this is said to be corroborated 

 by the fishing up, every now and then, in Swansea Bay, of stags' 

 antlers, elk horns, those of the wild ox, and wild boars' tusks, together 

 with the remains of other ancient tenants of tbe submerged forest. 

 Various references in the registers of Swansea and Averavon mark 

 successive stages in the advance of the desolation fi'om the latter part 

 of the fifteenth century down. Among others, a gi'eat sandstorm is 

 mentioned which overwhelmed the borough of Cynffig, or Kinfig, and 

 encroached on the coast generally ; the series of catastrophes seem to 



