206 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



in definitely stowing the coincidence of the like forms of animals 

 and of vegetation existing on both sides of the straits, dwelling 

 strongly on the presence in both countries of certain noxious animals 

 which were not likely to have been brought over by man. 



The investigations of Mr. Martin and Dr. Mantell, extended since by 

 other eminent English geologists, and the theoretical arguments of 

 upheaval and cross-fracture of the Wealden area by Mr. Hopkins, 

 have all strengthened and confirmed the conclusion of the former 

 union of the two countries, which may now be regarded as thoroughly 

 established. 



As it is not always easy to determine in the study of Nature the 

 why and the wherefore of all we see, so masked as it may be by 

 transmissional fancies and obscurities, there may yet be a rudiment 

 of truth in most traditions. In more than one case the investigations 

 of geology have given something like a foundation in reality to tales 

 that were before considered only within the bounds of fiction. So 

 that at last we have even come to regard fiction itself as drawing 

 upon reality for its creations ; and popular superstitions as founded 

 on some original occurrences, or as illiterate transformations of not 

 untruthful deductions. The recent discoveries of fossil rehcs of 

 human workmanship lend still greater probability to the idea that 

 many of the old fanciful legends may have been based upon primitive 

 facts or existences in very remote times indeed : and I think we 

 should not quite regard as an idle inquiry some researches into 

 the origin and bearings of the remarkable tales of losses of land 

 and catastrophes which for centuries have been current alike, 

 with very remarkable coincidence, in Cornwall, in Wales, and in 

 Brittany. 



Is it not indeed possible that the incidents referred to might have 

 been far more remote in antiquity than the Armorican race from 

 whom these tales have been du^ectly handed down to us, or than the 

 Scandinavian tribes from which the Armoricans have been by some 

 antiquaries thought to have derived them. If primitive man was the 

 associate of the mammoth, why fi'om primitive men should not have 

 come down to us the legend-m3^stified history of the channel-fissure ; 

 and in the legendar}^ losses of land may there not be some original 

 li'uth fulness of reference, in remote antiquity, to some gTcat catas- 



