1918.] EVIDENCE OF MAN IN GUERNSEY. 141 



in consequence ? Yet all we have to prove the contrary are vague 

 traditions in the Acts of St. Sampson of his visit in the sixth 

 century to the islands of Lesia and Angia, which were some- 

 where off the coast of Coutances, but who can identify with 

 certainty Guernsey with either of them. Then we have the 

 tale of Nivo, chief of Yis-Sargia, in the Acts of St. Magloire, 

 then darkness, until it is relieved by the charters of Duke 

 Robert, circa 1030, and of Duke William, 1043, which show us 

 our island occupied, divided into parishes as at present and 

 possessed, of the frame work at least, of a settled system of 

 government as complete as the rest of Normandy. So the 

 poverty of our finds for the preceding two thousand years 

 cannot be rightly taken as proof of the absence of man in 

 Guernsey, but it is due rather to the destruction of the burial 

 places of the period in the course of agriculture, and to the 

 greed with which each successive generation sought the 

 valuable metal contained in them. 



(1) The following place names also bear on this point : — 



" Le grand courtil de la Plate Hache," near Les Etibots, 

 St. Peter- Port. Extente dujief Le Roy en Ville, 1573. 



" Le camp a La Hache, d'aupres Test dn clos Aubrin." 



Extente dujief de la Riviere, Cdtel, circa 1490-1500. 



" Le corn-til de la Hache," near Le Hurel, St. Saviour's. 



Extente du fief Saint Michel a Saint Sauveur, 1718. 



As the old Guernsey name for a stone-axe was " fouidre," i.e., thunder- 

 bolt, it is most probable that these three fields owe their names to the 

 discovery of metal axe-heads in them in olden days. The name "le 

 grand courtil de la Plate Hache " is most suggestive, and points to the 

 discovery of a copper celt, or hache plate. 



