162 president's address. 



district, affected the others also, so that we are engaged in 

 solving a problem which has been most carefully studied by 

 geologists in England and France. Changes of level are recog- 

 nised by all these as taking place during this period in this part 

 of the world, for example : Dawkins, in his " Early Man in 

 Britain," says* : " This depression was not complete at the com- 

 mencement of the prehistoric period, but continued until a later 

 time." He mentions six different levels of the earth as shown 

 by recent formations on the coast of Somersetshire, and, of 

 these, the level of the submerged forests is second. It is not 

 my intention to try to set out similar periods in Guernsey, or to 

 discuss where our clays and ancient and raised beaches would 

 be placed in such a series. 



We have little evidence to show whether the land on our 

 west coast was overwhelmed by a sudden catastrophe or by a 

 gradual subsidence. Mr. Lukis propounds the theory that it 

 was brought about by an irruption of the sea during furious 

 gales at high water which broke through a former barrier of 

 rock, silted material and pebbles, which then stretched from 

 horn to horn of our western bays and preserved this low-lying 

 woodland. This explanation would not be sufficient to 

 account for similar catastrophes affecting all the western parts 

 of the English and Bristol Channels, nor for the depth of 

 water now covering the submerged areas. I do not doubt 

 that such irruptions have occurred and caused local loss of 

 land as in the bay of Mont St. Michel, but it does not meet 

 the case we are considering. 



As far as Guernsey is concerned we know that it was of 

 much greater size when the peat was being deposited, and I 

 have endeavoured to show that the peat was being formed at 

 about the same era as that in which the cromlechs were still 

 used for the purpose for which they were originally 

 constructed. The fact that one of these ancient stone 

 monuments was discovered at L' Islet, at a spot below the 

 present sea-level, attests the greater elevation at that time. 

 In the peat no iron implement has ever been discovered, the 

 peat was therefore overwhelmed before the iron age ; but 

 here again we have the remarkable fact that tpieces of copper 

 have been found with the animal and vegetable remains, the 

 pottery, &c, in the peat. So that we have the peat of the 

 lower beach being deposited after the commencement of the 

 bronze age, and similar evidence to show that the cromlechs 

 were at that same period still used as a place of sepulture. 

 Guernsey evidence then puts the great subsidence in the 



* P. 47. t L. B., in Guernsey and Jersey Magazine, p. 380. 



