AN ACCOUNT OF THE DISCOVERY AND 

 EXAMINATION OF A CIST OR DOLMEN OF A 

 TYPE NOVEL TO GUERNSEY IN OCTOBER AND 

 NOVEMBER, 1912. 



BY S. CAREY CURTIS, 

 Associate of the Royal Institute of British Architects. 



The attention of the Guernsey Society of Natural Science 

 and Local Research was drawn in October, 1912, to the 

 peculiar position of some stones, of which the points projected 

 above the soil, giving them the appearance of having been 

 set there purposely, in a field known locally as "Les 

 Fouaillages,"* situated close to the hamlet of LTslet, in 

 St. Sampson's Parish. This field slopes gently from N.E. 

 to S.W., and at this S.W. edge lies what was originally the 

 sea beach prior to the reclamation of the Braye du Valle by 

 Sir John Doyle in 1812, the margin of which now forms the 

 road known as " Sandy Hook." This is clearly seen on 

 comparing the map published by the War Department in 

 1787, in which the Braye du Valle is shown as an arm of the 

 sea, with the modern Ordnance Map of the same scale of 

 6 inches to the mile (xoieo) made in 1900. The surface of 

 the field was, like the adjoining fields, covered originally with 

 blown sand, but being to leeward of them, the prevailing 

 wind, S.W., brought more sand on to it than on to its 

 neighbours, and hence instead of being brought into cultivation 

 like them, was used chiefly as a sand pit for building operations 

 in the neighbourhood. Local tradition says the field was 

 covered at one time to a depth of 30 feet with sand. The 

 result of this removal of the sand was that mounds of various 



* Gu. Ft. Fouaille = mod. Fr. fougere = Engl. Bracken, indicating a fern-brake 

 at one time stood on the spot. 



