1916.] THE MOUSTEIilAM PERIOD. 389 



The Jersey caves that have been occupied help us in 

 fixing one or two facts of the intermediate period, and we 

 have some evidence which is of a different nature and leads to 

 conclusions not indicated by the Jersey evidence. 



These I shall attempt, with fear and trembling, to put 

 before you, but I am quite willing to admit that the facts of 

 this period are very sparse and meagre as far as Guernsey is 

 concerned. 



The Jersey caves that have been occupied are not those 

 of or near the present sea level, but are at an elevation of 

 50 or 60 feet. That I take it is an indication of a sea level 

 not far from the base of the caves. If so, the sea had again 

 been arrested at or about the 50 feet " point of stability." It 

 is important to fix this, for it is the first indication that we 

 have locally that the islands ever rose out of the pre- 

 Mousterian submergence. This gives us a starting-place on 

 which to build up our inter-glacial period. If the statement 

 qnoted by Dr. Marett (Pre. Hist. Man, fol. 205) holds then 

 we know that Comment's lower Mousterian man was in Jersey 

 owing, no doubt, to a land connection, before the sea had 

 reached a lower level than that represented by the caves. 



In Guernsey the Mousterian implements are found in the 

 upper clay, and this points to an occupation when the island 

 was again united to the mainland. (See Photo No. 19.) 



I have it on the authority of Mr. Le Vallee, our leading 

 well sinker, whom I have found to be accurate, that the two 

 clays were divided by a 2-feet deposit of cockle shells, at the 

 town end of the Canichers, 35 feet below the surface of the 

 soil. 



As regards Mousterian man, therefore, we may conclude 

 that he followed the ice as it disappeared to the north and 

 reached Jersey as the connecting land was above water. 



Guernsey would be reached only when the English Channel 

 was dry, hence if our caves were occupied, of which we have 

 no evidence so far, they would very likely be the lower level 

 caves. 



This would also point to the Guernsey Mousterians being 

 a later section of this culture. 



As regards the geological evidence of the inter-glacial 

 period under discussion it is extremely simple, for it consists 

 entirely of sands and loess which are found between the 

 clays. 



The Jersey cave " La Cotte a la Chevre, St. Ouen " 

 shows a deposit of yellow clay above the Mousterian layer. 

 (Marett, fol. 464.) 



