184/.] SiMITH ON DEPRESSION OF LAND. 239 



his * Neustria Pia/ " Deo permittente mare sylvairi quantumque esset 

 superavit et prostravit, replevitque arena locos Monti Tombelino ad- 

 jacentes ; nuntii autem reversi 1 6 Octobris * saltus arena refertos adeo 

 mirati sunt ut novum orbem se ingressos putaverunt." 



The Abbe De la Rue, in his * Essai Historique sur les Bardes,' 

 (vol. ii. p. 303,) quotes an ancient poem by Guillaume de Saint-Pair, 

 a monk in the monastery of Mont St. Michel who flourished in the 

 twelfth century, who says, that what was then sand was formerly a 

 forest : — 



" Ceu qui or est mer et areine 



En icels tems est forest pleine 



De mainte riche venaison 



Mais ore il noet li poisson. 



* * * * 



En le forest avait un mont," &c. 



But in monkish historians and metrical chronicles we are naturally 

 apprehensive of finding legends for history — in explanation of appear- 

 ances, the origin of which is unknown. 



Professor De Hericher of Avranches, in his work entitled * Avran- 

 chin Monumentale et Historique,' quotes certain ancient MSS. pre- 

 served in the public library in that town, which belonged to the 

 Benedictine Abbey of Mont St. Michel, but were dispersed at the re- 

 volution, which give an account of the sudden eruption of the sea by 

 which the ancient forest was submerged. I availed myself of the op- 

 portunity which a visit to that place afforded me of examining them. 



The volume No. 34 contains several works in different hands, but 

 all of great antiquity. The one alluded to by M. De Hericher, which 

 he considers, from its palaeography, to have been written in the ninth 

 century, has for its title, " Incipit revelatio Ecclesiae Sancti Michaelis 

 in monte qui dicitur Tumba in occiduis partibus sub Childeberto Rege 

 Francorum, Auberto Episcopo." 



The account contained in it is as follows : — " Qui primum locus, 

 sicut a veracibus cognoscere potuimus narratoribus, opacissima clau- 

 debatur silva longe ah oceano ut estimatur sestu millibus distans sex, 

 abditissima prsebens latibula ferarum. 



* * * 



" Mare quod longe distabat paulatim assurgens omnem silvse illius 

 magnitudinem virtute complanavit, et in arense suse formam cuncta 

 redegit. 



4f * * 



" Quasi novum ingressi sunt orbem quam primum veprium densitate 

 reliquerant." 



M. De Hericher, imwilling to admit an actual change of level, sup- 

 poses that the distajuce, " ab oceano eestu," refers to low water, and 

 as Mont St. Michel is six miles from it, concludes that no change 

 has taken place ; but the account of its having been surrounded by 

 wood leaves no room for such a supposition. 



* In corroboration of the season (October), the Abbe Manet states that certain 

 places are remarkable for the number of well-preserved acorns and nuts which are 

 found in them (p. 53.). 



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