158 president's address. 



fact, as one deposit. So the submarine peat at Vazon, &c., 

 and that lying just under the higher beach at L'Ancresse, 

 Cob o. Vazon, &c, and that under the western marshy land, 

 are really one deposit formed nearly contemporaneously. In 

 support of this theory, members can turn to an accoimt given 

 in " Rambles of a Naturalist," or to Professor Ansted's 

 "Channel Islands," for the result of a storm in 1847 on the 

 lower peat of Vazon Bay, when among the masses of peat 

 thrown on the beach, there were roots of grasses, rushes, and 

 weeds, trunks of full-sized trees and brauches of the same. 

 The perfect state in which they were, shows that they had 

 been long buried under sand. The compression of the trunks 

 and branches exhibits the first indication of that flattened 

 form which all fossil plants undergo. Acorns and hazel nuts 

 were found, also teeth of horses and hogs, Celtic pottery and 

 stone implements. Except for the implements and the larger 

 scale on which it occurred, this might be written word for 

 word as a description of the peat the Society has examined 

 at L'Ancresse, &c. 



The peat on the common below the Guet, like that at 

 Fort Doyle, &c, differs very much in appearance from these 

 others, but this may arise from their being sub-aerial instead 

 of submarine beds. In these, too, we have evidence of 

 Neolithic man in the fire-holes shown us by Col. Collings, and in 

 the hut circles pointed out by the late Mr. Allen at Homptol. 



One statement in Professor Ansted's book* rather 

 staggered me. " Coins of Roman date . . . have been 

 found in the peat at considerable depths." If these coins had 

 been dropped into the peats in the same manner as the bones 

 and stone implements, we should have the formation of the 

 peat and the building of the cromlechs brought down to 

 historic times. But on looking up Mr. Lukis's letter in 

 " Rambles of a Naturalist," p. 381, I find his words are : 

 " It is also reported that several hundred Roman coins were 

 discovered in the peat some years ago. I learn that the 

 neighbourhood of La Mare de Carteret, near Cobo Bay, was 

 the favoured spot where these were found." Notice " It is 

 reported." These reports are constantly misleading. Then 

 " several hundred " of them being found at one spot, point 

 immediately to their having been buried for the purpose of 

 concealment ; persons of any subsequent generation may 

 have dug down and buried things in the peat. 



Another statement on this subjeet, contained in a letter 

 of Mr. F. C. Lukis, written in 1869, and printed on p. 75 of 



* P. 285. 



