EPTILIA, RATRACHIA, VXD MAMMALIA. 469 



from Alderney to Cancale (then the "Forest of Scissy"), 

 with its towns, villages and inhabitants, to be suddenly sub- 

 merged. One writer, however, modifies this by saying that 

 this storm formed only the deep clunmel between the Ecrehou 

 reefs and Jersey, and that the final separation of the island 

 was the result of a succession of violent storms during the 

 following fifty years. On the other hand another writer 

 states that this terrific hurricane of 709 not only separated 

 Jersey from France, but also all the other islands of the group ! 



Chevremont, in a fine work entitled " Les Moiu^cnioits dv 

 Sol sur les Cotes Occidentales de la France^ et surtont dans le 

 Golfe Nornunino-Bveton,^' criticises these legends at length. 

 The " Maree Fatale " he terms a chimera, and the whole 

 series of accounts as " de la pitre imagination^'' and he proceeds 

 to point out and prove that nowhere is there a sign of violent 

 action. In the submerged forest land around the islands and 

 on the coast of France, trees, bushes, and even ferns are still 

 rooted in the peaty soil in the position they held when in life, 

 and he attributes the separation of the islands to the factor 

 still proceeding, namely, gradual subsidence. 



We must, however, in justice to the old historians, 

 examine and see if perchance local floodings of certain low- 

 lying land near the sea may have occurred, and thus given 

 some colour, however faint, to their legends. 



On several parts of our coasts, and chiefly in St. Ouen's 

 Bay in Jersey, there are districts of sandy soil, which are in 

 some places below the level of high spring tides. The sea is 

 kept from inundating them by the bank of sand and pebbles, 

 which on a flat shore the sea raises at its margin. This bank 

 is fortified on the land side by masses of blown sand, which 

 become firm and compact by a growth of maritime plants, 

 so that the bank is rendered strong by a line of dunes. 

 But an exceptionally high tide, accompanied by a strong wind 

 from the seaward, may any day break down this barrier, and 

 the retiring water still further level it, thus paving the way for 

 future tides of less magnitude, and so these low-lying portions 

 of land may at last become only an extension of the actual 

 shore. That is, the slow subsidence of centuries may to some 

 small extent be taken yjossession of suddenly by the sea, and 

 thus land may become submerged without leaving traces of 

 violent action. In this way science and legend may in some 

 measure harmonise ; but a cataclysm such as the old writers 

 depicted has certainly never occurred. 



The proving of a negative assertion is proverbially a 

 difficult matter, but as we shall see there is a mass of evidence 



