SUBMERGED PEAT AND FOREST BEDS. 



31 



and Herm is again a part of Guernsey. Neolithic remains 

 are no longer found on undisturbed land, nor are the bones of 

 Bos longifrons and its congeners. We find at this level 

 implements of bronze, and it is upon this bed, and not upon 

 the lower one, that Roman coins have been discovered, unless 

 of course these may have fallen to the lower one on such 

 portions of the coast as have been denuded of the upper 

 layer. 



Then comes the final act in the drama. The land once 

 more subsides and the sea encroaches, the river estuaries 

 between the islands widen ; Jersey once more becomes insular, 

 and Herm is parted from Guernsey. The manorial estate 

 and its grounds in St. Ouen's Bay, which were situated on 

 the upper bed, succumb to the waves, seaside villages on 

 the French coast share the same fate, and the land has 

 reached its present configuration. It is this upper bed, which 

 legend, tradition and faulty history have confounded with 

 the vastly more ancient, in fact early post glacial bed, which 

 lay five feet beneath it. 



As a rule it is only the lower bed which becomes exposed 

 on our coasts, when the sea shifts from place to place the 

 layers of sand and silt which it once laid upon it ; for the 

 upper peat is not sufficiently compact, nor is its immediate 

 sub-stratum sufficiently firm, to withstand wave action, so 

 that it becomes broken up and mixed wiih the accompanying 

 sand. We note, however, that in some places, as for instance, 

 near the North Pier in Jersey, it has subsided beneath the 

 low tide level without being disturbed. 



A question that must occur to every reflective person 

 that views the remains of the old forest exposed upon our 

 coasts is, How long is it since these trees lived and flourished ? 

 The answer is usually given in terms that convey no meaning 

 at all to an unscientific person, and only a relative one to 

 those who have a little knowledge of geology. It is said that 

 they belong to " Post-glacial " or to " Neolithic " times. The 

 need for something more definite has been felt by the masters 

 of the science which deals with these things, and efforts have 

 been made to estimate in gears the antiquity of the Neolithic 

 lake dwellings in Switzerland. The figures arrived at by 

 different methods of computation give us a period varying 

 from 4,000 to 7,000 years, which figures, even assuming that 

 they refer to Neolithic man's final occupation, Professor 

 Geikie considers far too low. 



When I go down to Greve d'Azette and sit upon the 

 same old oak stump that I sat upon fifty years ago, and note 



