hough imperceptibly diminishing,
and that the districts thus left unprotected proved to be below the
sea-level--owing, as regards the forests, to gradual subsidence easily
explicable in the case of undrained, swampy soil; and, as regards the
rocks, to the fact that the newly exposed surface consisted of
accumulations of already disintegrated deposits.

It is unquestionable that before the inroad of the sea the inlet in the
south-west of the island known as Rocquaine Bay was enclosed by two
arms, the northern of which terminated in the point of Lihou; on which
still stand the ruins of an old priory, while the southern ended in the
Hanois rocks, on which a lighthouse has been erected. Lihou is at
present an island, accessible only at low water by a narrow causeway;
the Hanois is entirely cut off from the shore, but it is a noteworthy
fact that the signs of old cart-ruts are visible at spring tides, and
that an iron hook was recently discovered attached to a submerged rock
which had apparently served as a gatepost; besides these proofs of the
existence of roads now lying under the waves, it is said that an old
order for the repair of Hanois roads is still extant. That Vazon and the
Braye du Valle were the sites of forests is indisputable, though the
former is now a sandy bay into which the Atlantic flows without
hindrance, and the latter, reclaimed within the present century by an
enterprising governor, formed for centuries a channel of the sea by
which the Clos du Valle, on which the Vale Church stands, was separated
from the mainland. A stratum of peat extends over the whole arm of the
Braye, while as regards Vazon there is the remarkable evidence of an
occurrence which took place in December, 1847. A strong westerly gale,
blowing into the bay concurrently with a low spring tide, broke up the
bed of peat and wood underlying the sand and gravel, and lifted it up
like an ice-floe; it was then carried landwards by the force of the
waves. The inhabitants flocked to the spot, and the phenomenon was
carefully inspected by scientific observers. Trunks of full-sized trees
were seen, accompanied by meadow plants and roots of rushes and weeds,
surrounded by those of grasses and mosses; the perfect state of the
trees showed that they had been long buried under the sand. Some of the
trees and boughs were at first mistaken for wreckage, but the fishermen
soon discovered their error and loaded their carts with the treasure
locally kno