THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 



143 



the State and its principal river per- 

 petuate the name of the discoverer of the 

 continent ? 



The "New's," "West's," "North's," and 

 "South's" with which many of our State 

 names are prefixed are inappropriate and 

 would seem to indicate a lack of imagina- 

 tion in naming' the various regions. In 

 place of these titles, such representative 

 and well-known Indian names as Yeman- 

 see, Adirondack, Alleghany, Mononga- 

 hela, Altamaha, Miami, Snohomish, Ya- 



kima, Tacoma, and many other river and 

 mountain names might have been fittingly 

 used to designate some of our States. 



In conclusion, let it be said that it is 

 possible the meaning ascribed to the 

 names of some of the States may be in- 

 accurate. This is chiefly owing to the 

 fact that many of the States were named 

 before the days of historical societies, 

 and in some cases the only sources of in- 

 formation are old letters, crude maps, 

 and Indian legends. 



THE CHANNEL ISLANDS 



Bits of France Picked Up by England, Whose History 

 is Linked with That of America 



By Edith Carey 



VICTOR HUGO has called the 

 Channel Islands "Bits of France 

 fallen into the sea and picked up 

 by England." Geographically and ra- 

 cially he was right, but "Morceaux de 

 France" politically they never have been ; 

 and Englishmen should realize that while 

 their Spanish fellow-subjects in Gibraltar, 

 their Italian fellow-subjects in Malta, and 

 their French fellow-subjects in Quebec 

 bear witness to England's conquests, their 

 fellow-subjects in the Channel Islands re- 

 mind them that they themselves have been 

 conquered. And although India, Africa, 

 Canada, and Australia may tell of Eng- 

 land's valor and England's enterprise, yet 

 Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, and Sark — 

 yes, even Herm and Jethou — tell us far 

 more of England's history. 



In these islands archaeologists will find 

 records of the past dating almost from 

 the very beginnings of the human race. 



SECRETS OF THE PAST REVEALED IX 



jersey's CAVES 



In Jersey are two Mousterian caves. 

 The one at La Cotte Ste. Brelade has 

 been opened recently and is now being 

 excavated. Its remains prove that the 

 primitive mammoth (Elephas trogon- 

 therii) , the great Irish elk, the reindeer, 

 the cave hyena, the wolf, and the woolly 



rhinoceros roamed these shores, which 

 were then attached to the mainland, while 

 dolmens and menhirs in each of the 

 islands, "gray, recumbent tombs of the 

 dead in desert places," bear witness to 

 the existence here of Neolithic Man at 

 least seventeen thousand years ago. 



In spite of the' fact that Breton saints 

 introduced Christianity into the islands 

 as early as the* sixth century, heathen 

 beliefs and practices long continued. 



HAUNTS OE WITCHES IN THE ISLANDS 



Paganism, unlike more developed forms 

 of religion, had its strength in local tra- 

 ditions and associations, in holy places — 

 wells, trees, and hills — charged with 

 mysterious potencies ; and to this day 

 various dolmens and caverns, the Roque 

 Berg and Roche a la Fee in Jersey, the 

 Catioroc, Creux des Fees, and Mont 

 Saint in Guernsey, are known to every 

 Channel Islander as the haunts of witches 

 and evil spirits and the erstwhile abode 

 of fairies. The waters of the "wishing 

 well'' of Saint George in Guernsey are 

 still looked upon as magically curative. 



Among the distinctive charms of the 

 islands are the dim memories of past 

 races — devil worshippers and sorcerers — 

 which still linger, old traditions of days 

 when "shapes that coiled in the woods 



