SUBMERGED PEAT AND FOREST BEDS. 



29 



Of peat and forest bed exposures in the other Channel 

 Islands, I have only seen the one at Vazon Bay, Guernsey. 

 Here the lower bed coincides exactly with that of St. 

 Ouen's Bay in Jersey, with the exception, that owing 

 to a thinner covering of sand the attrition of shingle 

 and pebble has worn the tree stumps down to the level 

 of the peat. Exposures occur at L'Ancresse and Perelle 

 Bay, in Guernsey ; and I understand from Mr. Marquand 

 that there is one of considerable extent on the north- 

 east of Alderney at Longy Bay. As regards the animal 

 remains that occur in this lower bed we have : Elytra 

 of beetles, everywhere plentiful, and bones of Bos Jo/igi- 

 frons in all the openings of any extent in Jersey, while in 

 Guernsey, besides Bos longifrons, there have been found 

 remains of lied Deer, Wild Boar, Dog (or Wolf), and Kid 

 (or Fawn). 



Now as to the extension of this lower bed. We note it 

 on the coasts of at least three of our islands : Jersey, Guern- 

 sey and Alderney, and also all along the adjacent shore of 

 France. Its intermediate existence is borne out by the oyster 

 dredgers working in from 10 to 15 fathoms of water north 

 and east of Jersey, for here they frequently bring up in their 

 dredges lumps of peat and fragments of wood. We also 

 observe on the Admiralty Chart, in the description of the 

 ground at some points of sounding, the words " rotten ground/' 

 which is obviously the same peaty soil, and Prof. Geikie 

 reports it as occurring in the middle of the English Channel. 



The upper peat bed, whicn has been so completely ignored 

 by all who have dealt with the ancient history of the islands, 

 differs in many respects from the lower one. The peat is 

 chiefly brown or reddish-brown in colour, rarely black ; no 

 trees occur in it, at least in these islands, nor are the hazel 

 nuts or beetle elytra which are so abundant in the lower 

 one here represented. The large J uncus conghmeratus is 

 replaced by rushes of smaller kinds, and sphagnum 

 and grasses are plentiful. Of animal remains, all I have 

 found are the little snails, Helix caper ata and H. hispida, 

 and in one portion, 10 feet below the soil in Mr. Dancaster's 

 grounds, many shells of the little water snail, Limnea peregra. 



I have described these beds at greater length than was 

 my original intention, for my chief object was rather to trace 

 their history. This portion of my task, thanks to the ex- 

 haustive treatment of similar phenomena on other shores in 

 Professor Geikie's Prehistoric Europe^ is an easy one. The 

 lower of these beds dates far back into prehistoric times, and 



