238 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Feb. 24, 



speak as to this from my own observation, but the Abbe Manet has 

 brought forward a great mass of evidence proving their occurrence on 

 the French coast ; and Falle, the historian of Jersey, states, that 

 there are buildings in the submerged forest of St. Ouen. I can, 

 however, give the authority of Capt. Martin White, R.N., who has 

 executed, under the directions of the Admiralty, an elaborate survey 

 of this part of the French coast. He informs me that on a shoal, 

 which is named in the French charts *' La Parisienne," he has brought 

 up with the lead fragments of brick and tile, and is quite satisfied 

 that it has been formed by the ruins of an ancient building. He has 

 also seen, under water, lines running along the bottom evidently arti- 

 ficial, and which are probably the same as those mentioned by Borlase 

 in his account of the Scilly Isles *, which are locally called ' hedges,' i. e. 

 ancient stone walls, which, he says, "are frequently seen upon the 

 shifting of the sands in the firths between the islands." The same 

 author also mentions a straight-lined ridge, like a causeway, running 

 across the old town creek in St. Mary's, which is now never above 

 water. 



Another peculiarity of this forest is the great vertical range through 

 which it can be observed. The tide rises and falls, as already 

 noticed, in the Bay of Cancale, about fifty feet ; and Capt. White in- 

 forms me he has seen, as far as the eye can penetrate below the sur- 

 face at low water, stumps of trees in situ beneath the sea, with the 

 roots shooting out in every direction. He has observed this phseno- 

 menon both on the coasts of France and Jersey. These trees could 

 not be less than sixty feet below high water. 



The most important point connected with this forest, however, is the 

 precision with which the date of the submergence can be ascertained. 



The account given by ecclesiastical historians and metrical chroni- 

 clers is as follows : — About the beginning of the eighth century St. 

 Aubert, Bishop of Avranches, founded a church in honour of the 

 Archangel Michael, upon the mount which now bears his name, 

 which was then surrounded by a forest, and was more than two leagues 

 distant from the sea. Being anxious to procure some relics of the pa- 

 tron saint, he sent two priests to Mount Garganus, in the south of Italy, 

 for a portion of a red cloak which the archangel had left when he 

 visited that place, and of the marble of the altar upon which he ap- 

 peared. During their absence, according to the Pere de Moustier, in 



* Borlase's account of the Scilly Islands contains many proofs that they have 

 been subjected to a movement of depression during the human period. If they 

 are the same as the Cassiterides mentioned by Strabo, and there is no other group 

 to which his description can apply, it is quite evident that a great depression must 

 have taken place since he wrote. The traditional account of the loss of land be- 

 tween Scilly and Cornwall is well known ; it was first mentioned by Camden, but 

 he treated it as a mere fable, " nescio qua fabula." His translator, Bishop Hud- 

 son, mentions a report, that at the Seven Stones, rocks between Scilly and the 

 mainland, fragments of windows had been brought up by the hooks of the fisher- 

 men. Capt.White, who has also surveyed this part of the English Channel, states, 

 that the summit of one of these rocks was evidently levelled by art, and that he 

 brought up with the lead, amongst other remains of art, di fragment of the leaden 

 aatragal of a window. 



