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.

    394/402 (page 382)
    constructed for the purpose of draining these ancient meadows. This lacustrine area is now tolerably firm upon its surface, but beneath it there are regular sedi- mentary deposits of sand and peat; and these, again, appear laid over the diluvial materials of an early date. In the neighbourhood of La Grande Mare the deposit has been cut to a considerable depth, and it is stated that two twelve-feet boards in successio'n have been sunk and disappeared in some of the boggy or more fluid spots. This now brings us in connexion with the gorban of the sea, and we must also suppose that the sub-soil drainage communicates with it in many parts. The north-west coast does not appear so favourably disposed for the growth of timber, and here we find the peat less woody and more compact in its structure. This part of the coast is much more interrupted by rocky hillocks, and consequently a more shallow depth of soil prevails. The Grand Harbour Bay and the Braye du VaUe offered a more favourable bed for the unmolested accumulation of soil and vegetation, and therefore we again meet with it at low depths beneath the sand or recent bed of the sea,—.which was only excluded by an embankment near the Vale Church, in 1808, and by which five hundred English acres were converted into arable land. The stratum of peat which is spread over the area of the Braye we shall not be at a loss to connect with the peat-bed under the sea, the destruction of which may likewise date with the successive encroachments of that element which we have been considering. ^ The church of the Vale, its priory, and other anti- quities, denote the existence of this inland sea ; so that the change we allude to must have occurred long before the introduction of Christianity in this island. We have again proofs of the recent accumulation of