PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS— 1897. 



BY MR. G. T. DERRICK, PRESIDENT, 



It is with a considerable amount of diffidence that I 

 address the members of this Society this evening on the 

 subject of " Guernsey in Prehistoric Times, or the Early 

 History of Man in Guernsey." 



This subject has frequently been touched upon at our 

 meetings. It is one upon which very little information can 

 be obtained from the older writers, who in many instances 

 have accepted statements which a little research would have 

 proved to be utterly without foundation, and others which 

 depend wholly on legend or tradition. I shall have to refer 

 to some of these statements in the course of this paper, in 

 which it is my object to bring together what I have been 

 able to glean on this subject, so that it may be methodically 

 discussed, the opinions of members elicited, and a sketch of 

 prehistoric times drawn, which can, later on, be filled in with 

 details resulting from the researches of Antiquarians and 

 Archasologists from time to time. 



In treating this subject I shall bring before you my idea 

 of the teachings of the cromlechs and other ancient remains, 

 and the more recent superficial deposits in the island, and I 

 shall make references to ancient writers who are supposed to 

 have mentioned it in their works. 



My first point is : That we have hardly sufficient remains 

 of Paleolithic man, or of the animals with whose remains he 

 is usually associated, e.g., the bison, mammoth, the reindeer, 

 the cave hyena, &c, to enable us to state with certainty that 

 Guernsey was inhabited in Paleolithic times.* 



Nor is this surprising when we remember that such 

 remains are usually discovered in caves, especially in those 

 occurring in limestone formations, where a calcareous deposit 

 has securely sealed up and so preserved the bones of men and 

 animals ; or in drift or river deposits, which could not attain 

 any great extent in our limited area. Additional proofs may 

 yet be unearthed, and for them members should diligently 

 search all clay deposits, the earliest peat deposits, or any 



* A few (less than a dozen) apparently paleolithic flint implements are the only 

 evidence at present existing. 



