26 



SUBMERGED PEAT AND FOREST BEDS. 



builders all through the lower parts of St. Helier's and St. 

 Ouen's, is an extension of the same bed ; a layer of sand, 

 gravel, clay and stone occurring between it and the lower one. 



Dr. Dunlop, in a valuable and interesting article entitled 

 " On Some Jersey Peat Beds," published in the Bulletin of 

 the Societe Jersiaise for 1896, describes the inland extension of 

 both beds in detail, but does not mention the fact that the 

 upper one is traceable in section upon the coast, and there 

 bears the same relation to the lower bed as it does in the 

 inland sections. I shall again have occasion to refer to Dr. 

 Dunlop's paper, but will first describe my own observations. 



Firstly, in the large excavation made for gas-works 

 extension in Tunnel Street, there occurred the following strata 

 counting from above downwards : — 



1. — Vegetable soil and yellow clay, 4 to 5 feet. 



2. — Brownish peat, mixed with sand, Avith remains of 



grasses, moss, &c, from 1 to 3 feet. 



3. — Blue clay, sand gravel, shingle and bits of stone, 



2 feet to 2 feet 6 inches. 



4. — Firm black peat, with trunks of trees, rushes, hazel 



branches and hazel nuts in great quantity, 4 to 6 

 feet. 



5. — Clay, sand, and angular fragments of stone (rubble 



drift). 



(The excavation was 120 feet in diameter and about 

 15 feet in depth). 



In the lower peat Dr. Dunlop found a Neolithic axe, and 

 some fragments of Neolithic pottery ; also teeth of a large 

 ruminant, most likely Bos longifrons. In the blue clay, be- 

 tween the peat beds, Mr. Stanley Guiton found shells of 

 Purpura lapillus, and of Trochus umbilicatus, molluscs still 

 abundant on our shores, at the present time. And in the 

 rubble drift, beneath the lower bed, I found a few (and Dr. 

 Colson found many) flint clippings, evidently of Paleolithic 

 age. Dr. Dunlop points out that the flint chips had evidently 

 been deposited after the action of glaciers or of the sea (or of 

 both) upon this drift, for their sharp edges were intact. 



During the excavations for the foundations of St. Paul's 

 Church, in New Street, I had frequent opportunities of seeing 

 the sections, but unfortunately I took no measurements. All 

 that I clearly remember is that two peat beds were cut 

 through, and that in the lower one, which Avas very thick, 

 there occurred what must have been the entire skeleton of an 

 ox, doubtless Bos longifrons. 



