86 



L'Ancresse. 



but little raised above present high water mark, though it is 

 some distance from the sea. I call it therefore an ancient, 

 rather than a raised beach. My idea is, that in ancient times 

 without any change of level, the sea at high water might have 

 had a clear passage between the two hills, the part under dis- 

 cussion being thus a sea beach covered as usual with shingle. 

 That pebbles were thrown up sea- ward which gradually accu- 

 mulated into a bank rising higher than the highest spring- 

 tides (such ridges are common on the west coast). On the 

 part thus enclosed, vegetation sprung up, and spread over it, 

 and so gradually the peaty covering of about four feet was 

 formed. Whether the extension towards the summit of the 

 hill can be accounted for without supposing a former lower 

 level of the land, and a subsequent rising, is rather doubtful, 

 though pebbles are now often carried during gales of wind to a 

 level far above the reach of the tide, so it is just possible that 

 the gradually decreasing layer of pebbles towards the summit 

 of the hill may have been blown there. The pebbles are 

 mostly of Guernsey stone, though flints occur in about the 

 same ratio to the mass as on the present beach. These ancient 

 flints, it is evident, could not have been brought here among 

 ballast, but must been brought by natural means from some 

 chalk formation.* The formation at the Capelles, being about 

 thirty feet above high water mark is undoubtedly a Raised 

 Beach, but the deposit is not so thick as this at Mont Cuet. 



In returning, the party mounted the hill to view the Crom- 

 lech, then proceeded on to the lower part of the Common, 

 inspecting the smaller Cromlechs there, digging up a few 

 specimens of Isoetes, then to see the Vale Church and church- 

 yard, and back to town after a most agreeable, interesting and 

 enjoyable excursion. 



*It seems also a reasonable inference from this, that the flints found 

 so abundantly on our north-western beaches owe their presence there to 

 natural causes. 



