Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist.

Date:
[1855?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Rambles among the Channel Islands / by a Naturalist. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    181/402 (page 169)
    Petit Bo, or Saints’ Bay. The vegetable deposit is known to extend, beyond the present low-water mark, to some distance toward the west and south under the sea. From this it may be concluded that the present domain of the waters must have considerably extended itself after that the waves had surmounted the original barriers which opposed their invasion of the land. The present rocky islets and sunken rocks which skirt the sea edge of this bay have been thought to be indications of the original coast-line, having the additional protection of an accumulation of drift. In consequence of some great event, the land they protected became overwhelmed' with the waters, and the sea has since that time held undisputedly the territory of land comprised within Vazon Bay, and its promontories. It is said that the lord of the “ Fief le Comte,” which includes Vazon Bay, has deeds by which the tenants were bound to pay a trilling duty, called pmage, for the privilege of feeding their swine in the forest of the Vazon ; and that in the reign of Henry II., was granted part of the island to the Count of Mortain, from whence was derived the title of Fief le Comte, or “Count’s Fief.” The following additional facts appear, however, to set this statement in a very questionable light.