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.

    393/402 (page 381)
    Another fact of much interest to the antiquary is, that pottery and stone instruments—the tools and vessels of the first inhabitants of these islands, mate- rials in character coexistent with our cromlechs, and those contents recently discovered within them, formed of the same substances and in every respect connected with the races which erected them—have been from time to timd found in the vegetable deposit in Vazon Bay. It is also reported that several hundred Roman coins w'ere discovered in the peat some years ago. I learn that the neighbourhood of La Mare Carteret, near Cobo Bay, was the favoured spot where these were found. The teeth of horses and hogs have likewise been discovered in the peat. No human remains have as yet been found. The antiseptic quality of peat and bog is well known, and the abundance of tannin which is contained in them might have easily produced remains of our race in good preservation. Acorns and hazel- nuts—the latter the produce of a tree not productive, and scarcely to be seen in this island—have frequently been observed. Let us take a rapid survey of the coast line, com- mencing with the hills near Pleinmont Point in Roc- quaine Bay, and continuing our view over Vazon and Cobo to the north of the island, and then terminate near the town. We here find an almost uninterrupted level flat of low but fertile land. In most places it skirts the base of those hills which form the elevated part of our island, and its limit is only a slightly raised embank- ment, which defends it from the incursions of the higrh- water weaves. Over this extensive margin of our island the imper- fection of drainage has greatly encouraged the growth of bog and peat; and this substance is still frequently dug up from ditches which are now more generally