1912.] 



REPORTS. 



36i 



Christmas presents were not given formerly as they are 

 to-day ; it was all New Year's gifts. The parcels-post in 

 those days did not exist. There were no Christmas Cards, 

 and the Christmas post, in comparison with the heavy mails 

 to which we are now accustomed, was ludicrously small. In 

 fact, I remember, that many years ago, the late Mr. Nicholas 

 Le Messurier, the then postmaster, at my request, very 

 kindly looked up some old postal statistics, and gave me 

 a copy of them. One item was that on a certain Christmas 

 day, the incoming mail from England consisted of one single 

 letter for the whole Island. I am sorry that I cannot now 

 recall the particular year in which this incident occurred, 

 but it would be one of the early years of the last (19th) 

 century. I know I published the figures at the time in one 

 or more of the Guernsey newspapers, but I cannot at the 

 moment recollect even the approximate date of such publi- 

 cation. Still the record exists in some of the local newspaper 

 files and it may be accidentally lit upon any time. 



J. Linwood Pitts, Sec. Folklore Sect. 



Report of the Geological Section, 191*4. 



1. — Vazon Bay. 



A patch of ancient beach was exposed in Vazon Bay 

 last January. It cannot be called a raised beach, because its 

 level is little above that of mean tide, and it is covered by the 

 deposits of the actual beach. It however resembles the 

 25 foot beach and there can be no doubt as to its antiquity. 



2. — Rocquainc Bay. 

 Mr. A. Collenette reported the finding of a beach deposit 

 in sinking a well on the slope overlooking Rocquaine Bay, 

 under about 50 feet of deposited material, consisting chiefly 

 of clay with angular stones. The level of this beach probably 

 corresponds with that at Vazon referred to above. 



3. — Mont Cuct. 

 Mr. Collenette also reported a new exposure of the 

 50 foot beach in a quarry recently opened in the higher part 

 of Mont Cuet. 



4. -Lowland Road, Vale. 

 In excavating for drains in this locality, diorite was 

 found at the surface, both at the cross-roads near Mr. J. E. 

 Dorey's house, and at the site of the pumping station which 



