vmm. 
 
GIFT OF 
 JANE Ko.^ATHEl 
 
PREHISTORIC TIMES & MEN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
PREHISTORIC TIMES & MEN 
 
 OF THE 
 
 CHANNEL ISLANDS, 
 
 By JOSEPH ^INET., 
 
 Hon. Member of the " Socirft' Jersiaise" (Archaeological and 
 Antiquarian Society of Jersey), and Curator of the Museum ; 
 Member of the Guernsey Society of Natural Science and 
 Local Research, &c. 
 
 Author of "The C4eology of Jersey"; "An Outline of the 
 Natural History of our Shores," &e. 
 
 With a Foreword by Profpssor Kkitit, M.D., F.R.S.. &c., 
 Conservator of the Museum of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, England ; President of the Royal Anthropo- 
 logical Institute of Great Britain. 
 
 ' - . » ' , J > ' > 'i ' ' • ■ ' 
 
 Printed and Pviblished bj' 
 
 J. T, BiowooD, States' Printer, 
 
 Jersey. 
 
 1914. 
 
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CONTENTS. 
 
 Chap. Page. 
 
 Foreword I 
 
 Author's Preface IV 
 
 I. Introductory 1 
 
 II. The Classification of Prehistoric Human Industries... 8 
 
 The EoHthic Age, The Paleolithic Age, The 
 Neolithic Age. The Bi'onze Age. 
 
 III. The Rise and Progress of Archaeological Discoverj-... 26 
 
 IV. Physical Geology of the Channel Islands 32 
 
 V. Local evidences of Early Man 43 
 
 Cave Dwellings. 
 
 VI. Absence of evidences of the later Paleolithic Races... 64 
 
 VII. Early Neolithic (Tardenoisien) Period 67 
 
 VIII. The later Neolithic (Robenhausian) Period 80 
 
 IX. The Bronze Age 89 
 
 X. The Chronology of local Prehistoric relics 92 
 
 XI. These Islands and their people in Prehistoric Times. 101 
 
 Addenda 124 
 
 The Submerged Forest. — The Caves of the Coast. 
 Evidences of Glaciation in the Islands. — The 
 presence of Flint in the Islands. — The Submerged 
 Valleys and other depressions around the Channel 
 Islands. 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Position of the Channel Islands prior to their separation 
 from the Continent 
 
 Position of Jersey with land CO feet higher than at jjresent 
 
 Section of soil beneath St. Hclicr 
 
 Cave Dwelling, St. Brelade (Vertical section) 
 
 Cave Dwelling, St. Brelade (plan of floor) 
 
 Grantez Dolmen (plan of floor) 
 
 Relative position of the Islands with the English and 
 French coasts 
 
 Prehistoric Remains in Jersey 
 
 Prehistoric Remains in Guernsey 
 
 Section of Cliff in Belcroutc Bay 
 
 Early Chellean or Strepyan Flint Implements 
 
 Flint Implements of Acheulian type 
 
 Mousterian Cave dwelling, St. Ouen (from the sea) 
 
 Mousterian Cave dwelling, St. Ouen (entrance) 
 
 Early Mousterian Implements 
 
 Mousterian Cave dwelling, St. Brelade (fron:i tide margin) 
 Mousterian Cave dwelling, St. Brelade (during exploration) 
 
 Mousterian Fhnt Implements 
 
 Teeth of Homo Breladensis 
 
 Neolithic Tomb and section of Strata 
 
 Neolithic Tombs 
 
 Skull from Neolithic Tomb 
 
 Skull from boulder clay 
 
 Faldouet Dolmen 
 
 Grantez Dolmen 
 
 Neolithic Stone axes 
 
 Neolithic axe and hammers 
 
 Neolithic Milling stones 
 
 Gold Torque 
 
 Submerged Forest, St. Oucu 
 
 Page. 
 
 35 
 37 
 iO 
 58 
 GO 
 85 
 
 Map. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 Plate. 
 
 I. 
 
 II. 
 
 III. 
 
 IV. 
 
 V. 
 
 VI. 
 
 VII. 
 
 VIII. 
 
 IX. 
 
 X. 
 
 XL 
 
 XII. 
 
 XIII, 
 
 XIV. 
 
 XV. 
 
 XVI. 
 
 XVII. 
 
 XVIII. 
 
 XIX. 
 
 XX. 
 
 XXI. 
 
FOREWORD. 
 
 By Arthur Keith, m.d. f.r.s., etc. 
 
 TT must have been early in 1911, that a tall, 
 engaging gentleman entered my workroom at the 
 Royal College of Surgeons, and spread before me 
 the contents of a little box which he took from his 
 pocket. 
 
 My visitor was Mr. R. R. Marett, Reader in Social 
 Anthropology at the University of Oxford — a 
 gentleman who needs no introduction to the people 
 of the Channel Islands, for he is one of them. 
 
 In the little box were some human teeth which, as 
 they were spread before me, proclaimed themselves 
 at once as those of a member of that strange race of 
 humans that lived in Europe during one of the 
 milder intervals of the Great Ice Age, and which are 
 known to all the scientific world as " Neanderthal 
 
 man." 
 
 Of these extinct men, — who differed as widely 
 from us as sheep differ from goats in all their parts — 
 we have not so far traced remains in England, but it is 
 plain that they lived in Jersey, for these teeth had 
 just been discovered, together with remains of 
 Pleistocene animals in a cave dwelling at St. Brelade, 
 in that Island. 
 
 I mention these teeth because they not only 
 brought me the friendship of Mr. Marett, but also 
 that of the writer of this charming little book, Mr. J. 
 Sinel. 
 
II FOREWORD. 
 
 They did more, they brought me to Jersey and 
 placed me in contact with the scenes which are here 
 80 well described. 
 
 Mr. Sinel has read the history of his beloved 
 Islands as it is written by the sun, the wind, the sea 
 and the frost, and of their ancient inhabitants as it is 
 told by their relics. He has obviously read aright 
 and this book tells the story as he has read it. 
 
 I have good reason to remember Jersey. Delightful 
 were those occasions when, amid the dunes and the 
 strata sections, Mr. Sinel showed me how he had 
 deciphered the hieroglyphics in which are recorded 
 the events of far back times. Also the hours spent 
 in the well-appointed museum of the Societe Jersiaise, 
 wherein are housed the treasures which are witnesses 
 of the facts brought forward in the pages which 
 follow, and that illustrate the wonderful story of the 
 long ago. 
 
 We are only now beginning to obtain a glimpse of 
 the vistas of human endeavour which have gone 
 before us, and to realise the immensity of the human 
 period even as recorded in our immediate neigh- 
 bourhood. 
 
 The ancient feuds between the early rulers of these 
 lands seem matters remote enough for most of us 
 when we begin to reckon up the past, but here in 
 this little book, when we read of the men who first 
 trod this soil, we realize more fully than ever that 
 even the Roman Conquest is but an affair of 
 yesterday. 
 
 Mr. Sinel tells his story graphically and fully, yet 
 in such a way that he who tutls may read, and I can 
 
FOREWORD. Ill 
 
 only wish that the reader's interest in it will be equal 
 to my own. 
 
 I regret that time did not permit me to visit 
 Guernsey and to have personal introduction to the 
 zealous band of workers in the same field of research 
 over there. But this is possibly a treat in store. 
 
 Meanwhile I heartily commend this little volume 
 as a valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 
 far back history of our race. 
 
IV 
 
 AUTHOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 TTAVING on various occasions contributed to the 
 local press and to one or two scientific journals, 
 the results of some of my observations on the 
 evidences of prehistoric man in these Islands, I have 
 been asked by many friends to place such obser- 
 vations in book form, and it is with pleasure that I 
 now comply with those requests. 
 
 The diversity of opinion which, to some extent, 
 exists on the whole subject of early man, makes the 
 task a little difEcult, and some of the conclusions at 
 which I have arrived may perhaps appear somewhat 
 venturesome, but I have followed the precept that it 
 is the duty of the scientific observer, not only to 
 describe facts as they present themselves, but to 
 draw such conclusions from them as the attendant 
 circumstances dictate, without looking to previously 
 expressed opinions for guidance. 
 
 With regard to the antiquity of the early races of 
 man, it will no doubt appear to some of my readers 
 that I am on the side of the extremists, and such is 
 actually the case ; not on account of the fascination 
 which long rows of figures possess, but from absolute 
 conviction. For instance, I go down to the low tide 
 limit in St. Clement's Bay, and sit upon a huge semi- 
 carbonized tree trunk which lies there, held by its 
 roots in the firm peaty soil, and remember that I sat 
 upon that trunk half a century ago, and that during 
 that interval there has been no apparent change in 
 
author's preface. 
 
 its form or position. Then tracing the history of 
 this tree, I see it, once a monarch in the midst of a 
 vast forest ; then dying under the influence of an 
 approaching sea, falling, and buried in wind-blown 
 sand and then submerged to a depth of sixty feet or 
 more ; Again, by earth oscillation, lifted high above 
 the waters and forming part of the substratum for 
 another vegetation ; Finally,— stripped of the strata 
 which had accumulated upon it — once more beneath 
 the sea. 
 
 What period has elapsed since this tree was in leaf 
 and the birds built their nests amid its branches ? 
 
 No cataclysm has played part in its history ; the 
 soil in which it is rooted is undisturbed, so that even 
 the hoof-prints of the ancient oxen that roamed 
 around are clearly defined. All the surroundings 
 indicate that these changes are simply due to the 
 same slow process of undulation of earth's surface as 
 that which is proceeding at this moment. 
 
 When I look back along the beaten track of history 
 to Roman times, I find that the twenty centuries 
 which have slipped by since then have wrought but 
 little change in the configuration of the land ; a 
 certain amount of subsidence and nothing more. 
 
 How long is it then since my tree was growing ? 
 Twenty to thirty thousand years at least seem to be 
 called for to account for all its vicissitudes, and yet 
 in the soil around this tree, and even beneath the 
 roots of its neighbours, are relics of Neolithic man, — 
 of races which, compared with Paleolithic man, are 
 as of to-day. 
 
VI author's preface. 
 
 Again, when I stand on the highest land of the 
 Northern coast of Jersey, survey the Channel 
 Archipelago, and remember that since man first trod 
 this soil, these Islands— all through the same slow 
 process of earth's undulation -have been alternately 
 continental and insular many times, and that where 
 now is sea, sub-tropical and sub-arctic forests have 
 alternated, either passing by imperceptible change 
 from the one to the other, or appearing in turn at 
 different periods of land elevation. 
 
 Then I remember that two glacial episodes have 
 passed ; that herds of primitive elephants, the lion, 
 the hippopotamus, and other warmth-requiring 
 animals, have roamed these lands, and that so have 
 the mammoth, the woolly rhinoceros, the reindeer, 
 the arctic hare, and a host of other denizens of icy 
 regions. 
 
 Nature does not work by bounds, but with slow 
 deliberation, yet throughout these shifting scenes — 
 throughout this long march of ages — man has lived 
 here, and left his traces. 
 
 These are some of the reasons for the faith which 
 is in me with regard to the vast antiquity of man, 
 even as he is represented in this little area, and 
 which I think I shall make clear in the pages that 
 follow. 
 
 Among the many friends whom I have to thank 
 for valuable assistance are, firstly, the Societe 
 Jersiaise, not only for the fact that the more 
 important portion of what I am bringing forward 
 — the cave researches — is almost entirely based 
 upon its work, but for the loan of most of the 
 
author's preface. VII 
 
 blocks here used in illustration, and for assistance 
 and kindness in many other ways. 
 
 Dr. Keith, for having checked my manuscript and 
 honoured me with a " Foreword." 
 
 Mr. E. F. Guiton, for having taken special 
 photographs for me and assisted me in many ways. 
 Capt. H. S. Lawson, Mr. H. J. Baal and Mr. F. Le 
 Cornu, for indicating to me strata in which they had 
 noticed human evidences, and Mr. A. Collenette for 
 many notes on Guernsey. 
 
 J. SINEL. 
 Jersey, September 1st, 1913. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 TN mid-tertiary times the Channel Islands were an 
 integral portion of the higher plains of Normandy, 
 and were originally separated from these and from 
 each other through erosion by the sea of softer rocks 
 by which, until then, they were invested. 
 
 Then in subsequent periods of laud elevation and 
 subsidence, they have been alternately reconnected 
 with, and separated from, the mainland and each 
 other a number of times. A study of the strata on 
 liie shores, shows that during the quaternary period, 
 Jersey and Alderney have been reconnected with the 
 Continent not less than three times, and Guernsey, 
 Sark and Herm, not less than twice. 
 
 Each of these periods of reconnection has revealed 
 the islands as elevated areas in the surrounding 
 plains, with scarped and rugged granitic cliffs 
 tunnelled with innumerable caves and grottoes, rising 
 from 300 to 500 feet above those plains. 
 
 When these points are considered, it will readily 
 be sui-;nised that the islands must be rich in evidences 
 of the early races of men that peopled this part of 
 Europe, for their elevated cliff-caves, offering shelter 
 and safe retreat, and the low-lying forest plains 
 around, the fruits and roots of the season, rich hunting 
 grounds and fuel reserves, would present ideal 
 c nditions for a hunter's life. 
 
2 TREniSTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHAIWEL ISLANDS. 
 
 Nor would the archaeologist who had thus surmised 
 be disappointed, for within their limited field, relics 
 representing human succession from the earliest 
 paleolithic (apparently even eolilhic) to the latest 
 neolithic times, are present on all sides. 
 
 Yet strangely, with the exception of various re- 
 searches into their dolmens, dating from about the 
 middle of the last century it is only within the last 
 couple of years that the islands have received the 
 attention they so well deserve, and that systematic 
 research into their paleolithic records has been 
 undertaken. 
 
 The first actual demonstration that some of their 
 cliff-caves had been the dwelling places of primitive 
 man is, I believe, due to my friend Mr. S. Dancaster 
 and myself who, in 1881, proved traces of Paleolithic 
 occupation in the little cave known as " la Cotte a la 
 Chevre " at St. Ouen, on the North coast of Jersey. 
 
 It was, however, only in 1910 that serious and 
 systematic work in the subject of Paleolithic research 
 was begun, this work being entirely that of the local 
 archaeological and antiquarian society — the Societe 
 Jersiaisc. 
 
 The splendid results which have crowned the work of 
 this Society will be fully explained in the pages that 
 follow, but meanwhile I may mention that it has 
 brought to light some of the earliest evidences of 
 man on record, represented, not only by his handi- 
 work, his hearths and implements, but by his actual 
 remains, and also those of his congeners —a pleistocene 
 fauna. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 Apart from the records of the caves, the islands 
 have other evidences of the very early races, for 
 scattered over the moorlands, beneath the clays that 
 date from glacial times, and often exposed on the 
 surface of the ploughed fields, chipped flints, and 
 finished flint and other stone implements are con- 
 stantly brought to light. 
 
 The earliest portions of the neolithic period, repre- 
 sented by implements and other relics, are traceable 
 beneath the levels of the submerged forest lands and 
 by some tombs and human remains in Jersey, and 
 the later ones by cromlechs, dolmens, menhirs, &c., 
 throughout the islands. 
 
 The bronze age, although less fully represented, 
 has left some valuable relics as we shall see in due 
 course. 
 
 As this little book is intended for the general 
 reader rather than for those versed in Archaeology, it 
 may, however, be well, before touching upon local 
 details, to devote a little space to an outline of 
 Archaeology in general, to describe the industries 
 that mark each division of human succession, and to 
 explain the various terms that must of necessity be 
 used in dealing with these. For instance, as it is 
 customary to refer to some of the races of early man 
 as having lived in " glacial," " interglacial," or " post- 
 glacial " times, as the case may be, it will be well, 
 in the first place, to explain, as briefly as the subject 
 will admit, the meaning of these terms. 
 
 In this part of Europe the dwellers are now 
 enjoying a mild and fairly equable climate, but it 
 
4 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 was not always so. If not actually down to the 
 latitude of these islands, still at a comparatively short 
 distance to the north of them, the ice-sheet of the 
 north has more than once crept down, and at one 
 time at least, the seas have been frozen over, and a 
 mer de glace has spread as far south as the latitude 
 of Hampshire. 
 
 The much controverted question as to whether the 
 climatic phases known as "glacial periods " are due 
 to astronomical, to geological, or to other causes, it is 
 not necessary to touch upon here, the reader will find 
 the subject fully discussed in Prof. Geikie's Great 
 Ice Age, Sir R. Ball's Causes of an Ice Age, and in 
 the writings of other masters of geological and 
 astronomical science. It will here suffice to say that 
 such periods have occurred, and have left the marks 
 of their presence, not only in the earth's strata, but 
 in the botany and zoology of each affected region. 
 
 Although the Channel Islands are generally supposed 
 to have been ontside the limits of the actually glaciated 
 area (see addenda), still, beds of clay, interstratified 
 with layers of rock detritus, and sometimes containing 
 large boulders that have been washed down slopes 
 from a great distance, mark at the very least its 
 proximity, for these stratified, boulder-containing 
 clays can only be the work of the torrential floods 
 of melting snows, — the " glacial rubble-drift " of 
 geologists. 
 
 Prof. James Geikie {Great Ice Age) says : — 
 
 " When all the regions to the North were swathed 
 in perpetual snow and ice, it is not to be supposed 
 
INTRODUCTORY. O 
 
 that the non-glaciated districts were clothed with 
 much vegetation. 
 
 "Immediately South of the Kortheru ice-sheet, 
 indeed, deep snow covering large tracts of country 
 may have endured often for years notwithstanding 
 the melting that must have taken place in summer." 
 
 It is to the summer meltings of such snow accumu- 
 lations, during periods when there was little or no 
 vegetation to bind the hilltop and hillside clays, that 
 are due those layers of " glacial rubble-drift," — in 
 some places over fifty feet thick — so much in evidence 
 in many parts of the islands. 
 
 They represent an " upper and a "lower " boulder 
 clay, with evidences of a genial episode between 
 them. 
 
 These deposits of generally accepted dates, then 
 afford us some chronology in dealing with early man 
 according as we find his relics beneath, between, or 
 above them, which chronology will be discussed in a 
 separate chapter. 
 
 For the non-geologist, it will also be well at this 
 point to define the terms employed in geological 
 record which have a bearing on anthropology. 
 
 The term " recent " is used to express the period 
 which leaches back from this day until the glacial 
 period. It covers the time of the later races of 
 Paleolithic man, of Neolithic man, and of the Bronze 
 and Iron ages. 
 
 Immediately preceding this was the " Pleistocene." 
 This was characterized by periods of cold, with 
 temperate intervals. 
 
6 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS, 
 
 The duration of the Pleistocene is a matter on 
 which authorities differ widely, the majority claim 
 that it lasted at the very least some 150,000 to 
 200,000 years, but the modern tendency is to increase 
 this estimate greatly, in fact the latest estimates for 
 the duration of the Pleistocene period are given as 
 from a million to a million and a half years. 
 
 This period covered the time of the earliest races 
 of men of which we have up to this day any authentic 
 record — the Chellean, Acheulian, and Mousterian or 
 Neanderthal races ; including the far back Heidelberg 
 remains — perhaps even the Pithecanthropus of Java. 
 
 Before the Pleistocene was the Pliocene. This 
 period was a long one ; three or four times at least as 
 long as the Pleistocene. 
 
 The climate of North-western Europe in Pliocene 
 times was warm, and its fauna and flora were sub- 
 tropical. It is now held by many that man occupied 
 these regions at the end of those times, for human 
 artefacts certainly do occur in Pliocene strata. 
 
 Before the Pliocene was the Miocene, a period of 
 probably still much longer duration than the Pliocene. 
 
 Preceding the Miocene was the Oligocene, and 
 before this the Eocene, a period in the geological 
 record which carries us back into many millions of 
 years. 
 
 The Eocene period is the one in which mammalian 
 forms appeared, and the Oligocene is probably the 
 one in which man as a genus, branched off from the 
 stock which also gave rise to the anthropoid apes. 
 
INTRODUCTORr, 
 
 It will be noted elsewhere that some anthropologists 
 claim the discovery of supposed human artefacts as 
 far back as the Oligoeene ! 
 
 Now the Eocene, Oligoeene, Miocene and Pliocene, 
 together form that great division of geological time 
 which is termed the Tertiary. 
 
 I cannot help feeling that some apology is due to 
 many of my readers for these details, but I must once 
 again remind them that I am not writing for the man 
 of science but simply for the general intelligent 
 public. 
 
— 8 — 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC 
 HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 
 
 TTNTIL recent years the only attempt at a separation 
 of the periods during which human industries were 
 chiefly confined to the making of implements of stone, 
 was to divide them into the Paleolithic or " Old Stone 
 Age," and the NeolitJiie or " Newer Stone Age." The 
 former was characterized by implements which — 
 usually of flint — were simply chipped into the desired 
 form, and the latter by the addition to such chipped 
 flints, of axes and other implements of various kinds 
 of stone which were finished with great care, mostly 
 symmetrical, and often ground and polished. 
 
 But the discoveries of the last half century or so, 
 have shown that the " Old Stone Age " must have 
 represented a period which covered hundreds of 
 thousands of years and included many races of men, 
 each of these races being characterized by different 
 types of implements and the association of such 
 different types of implements with the remains of 
 different types of animals. 
 
 Further than this, some recent researches reveal 
 Avhat appear to be humanly chipped flints in such 
 geological strata as to make it all but certain that 
 man — and man so advanced as to be an artizan — 
 existed as far back as Tertiary times. To this 
 immensely remote period — as regards human record 
 — the terra " Paleolithic " as generally understood, 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUM.VN TKDUSTRIES. 9 
 
 fails to apply, and so the term '^ Eolitliic'' has been 
 introduced. 
 
 Then again, the Neolithic period is now found to 
 be a time so vast, and to cover, not one, but several 
 races of men that it is necessary to subdivide it into 
 two or three sections. 
 
 Finally, until quite recently, it was thought that 
 between the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods there 
 was a gap, and this was termed the " hiatus," but 
 recent research has brought to light -as we shall see 
 further on — abundant evidences of races of men 
 between these, so that the gulf is bridged and the 
 chain of human succession shown to be unbroken. 
 
 It has been said that classifications are only made 
 to be unmade, but at all events, out of a dozen or 
 more systems that have been suggested for the classi- 
 fication of pre-historic human relics, the following, 
 which is that of de Mortillet,"'"' is the one Avhich is 
 most widely accepted, and with but little modification, 
 now in general use. 
 
 THE EOLITHIC AGE. 
 
 As already mentioned, fragments of flint which bear 
 indications of having been intentionally chipped into 
 such shapes as would render them serviceable imple- 
 ments have been found, not only in the upper strata 
 of the Tertiary period — the Pliocene, but in still older 
 deposits— 0/i^ocene, a period which goes back into 
 millions of years. So that, if such chipped flints 
 really represent human workmanship, then man 
 
 * La Prehistoire, par Gabriel et Andrien de Mortillet, Paris 1910. 
 
10 rBimisTOBic times and men of the chiVnnel islands. 
 
 must have lived in these very regions in the time of 
 the Mastodon and Deinotherium. 
 
 Many authorities, however, entertain grave doubts 
 as to whether these chipped flints in tertiary strata 
 represent human handiwork, and around the whole 
 question there is, as Professor Sollas says, " a raging 
 vortex of controversy." 
 
 De Mortillet is of opinion that such flints have been 
 intentionally chipped but is slow to acknowledge the 
 hand of man. "They are probably," he says "the 
 work of some precursor of man," which involves a 
 rather nice point, for it is not easy to determine at 
 what particular point in his long history, man first 
 qualified for his title. 
 
 The great trouble is that no human remains 
 unquestionably referable to this period have been 
 brought to light, and this is the strong point of the 
 opponents of tertiary man. But there are other points 
 to consider. For instance, as Professor Windle points 
 out,* 
 
 " When such chipped flints are found in a district 
 where flint does not naturally occur, then the evidence 
 in support of their being the result of human work- 
 manship is much strengthened."! 
 
 Again, the same authority, quoting Mr. Bell, says : 
 
 " The Paleolithic implement is, on the face of it, a 
 very advanced and artistic production. Neither in 
 form nor in workmanship does it show any indication 
 
 * Remains of the Paleolithic Age in England, 
 t (See note on occurrence of flinta in Addenda." 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 11 
 
 of the prentice hand, and far from being the firstborn 
 of human tools, must represent the last stages in a 
 long series of artistic developments." 
 
 Further reference to this debated question would be 
 out of place, as well as unnecessary in this little 
 volume, and the interested reader will find the various 
 points fully discussed in all the recent publications on 
 Archaeology.* The only reasons for such details as I 
 have given is that later on we may consider whether 
 relics of human industry belonging to those 
 immensely remote 4,imes occur in the Channel 
 Islands. 
 
 THE PALEOLITHIC AGE. 
 
 Whatever haze may stiU involve the subject of 
 " Eolithic man," the horizon becomes perfectly clear 
 when we enter the paleolithic stage of his existence. 
 Here, except on points of detail, the opinions of 
 experts cease to be divided, and demonstrable facts 
 take the place of hypotheses however well founded 
 those may be. 
 
 The various periods into which the paleolithic 
 age is divided, and the terms which are used to 
 express those periods, are now generally accepted as 
 follows, the terms being taken from districts which 
 have furnished, either the first, or the best authen- 
 ticated, records. 
 
 Chellean Period. 
 (From Chelles, Seine et Marne.) 
 
 Among human evidences in the lower deposits of 
 quaternary times, are abundant flint implements of a 
 well marked and constant type. 
 
 * See, for instance, Prehistoric Man, by W. L. Duckworth, 
 Cambridge University series. 
 
12 PREHISTORIC TIMKS AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 These are the ** Hand-Axes " of British authorities 
 — the " Coups de Poing " of de Mortillet. 
 
 These implements are formed from flint nodules, 
 roughly chipped all around into a more or less pear- 
 like form. As a rule they are massive, sometimes a 
 foot, and rarely less than four or five inches in length. 
 They occur chiefly in old river gravels, in drift 
 clay, and on moorland — rarely if ever in caves. 
 
 During the Chellean period the climate of this part 
 of Europe was warm — it was an interglacial period, 
 and the flora and fauna consisted of what we now 
 term Southern forms. 
 
 In the same strata as are found the relics of human 
 industry of this period there occur remains of the 
 following animals, viz., two species of elephant — 
 Eleplias antiquus and Eleplias meridionalis, one 
 species of rhinoceros — Rhinoceros Merkii, the hippo- 
 potamus, the cave-bear and cave-hyena, the sabre- 
 toothed tiger and a species of lion. Except the 
 hippopotamus, which has taken up its abode in 
 southern lands, all these animals are now extinct. 
 
 Relics of the flora of that period are less in 
 evidence than are the animal remains, but there are 
 indications that it embraced the magnolia, the rose- 
 laurel, the fig, and probably the palm. 
 
 Marking the evolution of the Chellean implement, 
 and found in strata still lower down, where they are 
 associated with the remains of extinct animals other 
 than those above named, are other forms of implement, 
 which seem to link Chellean with Eolithic times. 
 
 To the periods thus represented the terms 
 " Strepyan " and " Mesvenian " have been applied, 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF TREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 13 
 
 but as there are still some undecided points connected 
 with this part of the subject, it is as yet scarcely safe 
 to use the terms in a general outline of classification. 
 
 AciiEULiAN Period. 
 (From St. Acheul, Amiens, Somme.) 
 Although there are clear evidences of a blending 
 of this period with the Chellean, still in its full 
 development it is well characterized. The rough, 
 pear-shaped implement here gives place to a lighter 
 form, still made from an entire flint nodule, but 
 fmely and evenly chipped on two sides so as to bring 
 it to a flat and very uniform shape, sometimes 
 almond shaped, sometimes cordiform. 
 
 The fauna of the full Acheulian period shows that 
 the climate was becoming colder, the hippopotamus 
 seems to have disappeared from these regions, and 
 the mammoth comes upon the scene. ElepJias 
 meriodinalis had become extinct, and some authorities 
 doubt whether Ehphas antiquus had persisted until 
 then. The flora also shows some modification, the 
 whole indicating considerable climatic change.'"'"' 
 
 MousTERiAN Period. 
 (From Le Moiistier, Commune de Peyzac Dordogne.) 
 
 The implements of this period, although as a rule 
 less elaborately chipped than those of the Acheulian, 
 show a marked advance on these from the point of 
 view of general utility. 
 
 They are no longer fashioned direct from nodules, 
 but from flakes — large or small — split from the sides 
 of nodules, the work of chipping, to bring them to 
 
 * See La Prehistoirc, by G. and A. de Mortillet, Ed. 1910. 
 
14 PEEHISTORIC TIMES A'NT) MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 the desired form being performed on one side of the 
 Hake only, the other side being left flat and smooth, 
 just bearing at the base that " bulb of percussion," 
 which nearly always results when vitreous substances 
 are fractured. By this means a sharp and clean- 
 cutting erlgp i';. secured and a fairly neat and effective 
 implement is the result. They are usually of that 
 more or less lanceolate shape which de Mortillet 
 terras the Pointe a main, and Evans, the " Tongiie- 
 shaped implement.'' lu size they range as a rule 
 from two to five inches in length. 
 
 This is the typical, and the most plentiful 
 implement of the period, but there occur with these, 
 others simply so chipped as to present a sharp point, 
 these being apparently borers or piercers for making- 
 holes — probably for joining skins. Then there are 
 flat flakes with more or less parallel sides, apparently 
 knives or scrapers for cleaning and trimming skins 
 and so forth, but this last form is not confined to the 
 Mousterian period, for it persists through all 
 successive periods of the stone ages, right into the 
 latest Neolithic. 
 
 The question has often arisen as to whether the 
 lanceolate implements — so very like spear-heads — 
 were hafted, or in any way attached to handles. 
 
 De Mortillet is of opinion that they were not, but 
 were simply used in the hand, hence his term for 
 them "Pointe a main" — mentioning in support of 
 his contention that the Tasmanians employed closely 
 similar implements in the way he describes. This 
 seems hard to credit, for one would think that the 
 obvious advantage of a flint-tipped thrusting weapon, 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUM.VISr INDUSTRIES. 15 
 
 and one so easily coQstructed, would have suggested 
 itself to man so advanced in technique as to be the 
 maker of these carefully wrought flint points. 
 
 The climate of these regions during the sojourn of 
 Mousterian man must have changed from the 
 comparatively mild finale of an interglacial period to 
 nearly, if not quite, the full rigours of an arctic one. 
 
 Mousterian man had among his congeners the 
 following animals, viz., the mammoth, woolly 
 rhinoceros, bison, urus, two species of wild horse, 
 many kinds of deer and several small bovids, the 
 reindeer, musk ox, ibex, two species of bear, the 
 glutton, stoat and weasel, the arctic hare, badger, 
 beaver, lynx, wolf and fox. He also encountered a 
 cold-enduring lion — a species of great size— and a 
 leopard. Such at least are the animals that have left 
 their bones mingled with the relics of the men of the 
 period. 
 
 Thus, with a climate cold, and growing colder as 
 the ice-sheet spread down from the north, Mousterian 
 man took to the shelter of caves, and it is in these 
 that we find the greater portion of his relics, with the 
 remnants of his feasts alongside his voluminous 
 hearths. 
 
 AuiiiGNACiAN Period. 
 
 (From Aurignac, Haute Garonne). 
 
 At present the majority of archaeologists introduce 
 this period here, among these being such authorities 
 as Dupont, Arcelin, Pavat and Breuil. But on ti{e 
 other hand some are disposed to place it further on, 
 
16 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 viz, subsequent to the Solutrian, de Mortillet being 
 one of these.""'' 
 
 From the cultural point of view it certainly seems 
 a great leap from the Mousterian to the Aurignacian, 
 for in the former we see but evidences of the crude 
 savage, whose highest attainments are represented by 
 chipped flints which, however well they may be 
 fashioned, are all on one plan, whilst amongst the 
 Aurignacian relics we find evidences of high artistic 
 talent, — bracelets in ivory, statuettes and subjects in 
 bas-relief. I The flint implements found amongst the 
 Aurignacian relics consist simply of long flakes 
 which could serve as knives and some broader flakes 
 rounded and bevelled at one end evidently used for 
 dressing skins ; all larger implements, such as 
 daggers, &c., being made of bone or stag's horn. 
 
 In the Aurignacian period, severe glacial conditions 
 had passed away and the climate was becoming more 
 genial, although as far as has been observed the 
 fauna seems to have been much the same as during 
 the Mousterian. 
 
 Solutrian Period. 
 (From Soliitre, Saone et Loire). 
 In this period art becomes still more advanced. 
 Besides carvings, &c., as in the foregoing, we now 
 find abundant etchings on stone, bone and ivory. 
 
 * TLe arguments pro and eon this order are fully p;ivea in an 
 article by Prof. Breuil, entitled " L'Aurignacian pre-Solutrieu. 
 Epilogue d'une controveree," in the Ttevue PreJiistorique for 1909, 
 parts 8 and 9. 
 
 t Of course this represents replacement of race by r..oe .ind not 
 genealogical succession. On this matter the reader will d i well to 
 consult the Chapter on Human Evolution in Professor Duckworth's 
 Prcliiatoric man. 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF rREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 17 
 
 The art of flint chipping has also greatly advanced, 
 and the typical flint implements known as the 
 '• Feuilles-de-laurier " of de Mortillet, are marvels of 
 fine chipping. They are, as de Mortillet's term 
 implies, lanceolate in shape, thin, light and elegant — 
 very much, on the lines of those of recent North 
 American tribes so frequent in miiseiuns. 
 
 Whilst, as one cannot but suppose, the climate in 
 this period was still becoming more genial, there 
 does not appear to be much difference in the fauna. 
 De Mortillet gives, among the animal remains found 
 in France associated with the Solutrian industry, the 
 following : — cave bear, brown bear, badger, wolf, 
 fox, glutton, pole-cat, hyena, cave leopard, lynx, 
 marmot, arctic hare, mammoth, horse, wild boar, 
 reindeer, wapiti, red deer, saiga antelope, bison 
 (auroch) and the urus or Bos priinigenius.^ 
 
 Magdalenian Period. 
 (From the Cave of la Madeleine, Sarlat, Dordogne.) 
 This, and the Solutrian, are frequently combined 
 in the term '* Reindeer Period," as the reindeer, 
 although present from Mousterian times, appears to 
 have been more abundant in these more recent 
 periods. 
 
 The Magdalenian period is characterized by a 
 considerable change in its artefacts. Flint, about the 
 most essential commodity in all the earlier industries 
 (except, it seems, the Aurignacian) is now only 
 
 * The gradual transition to a milder climate in this period is 
 however questioned by de Mortillot, who claims that the flora indicates 
 an increase of coli. " The climate," he says, " was becoming colder 
 and drier." There seems however some doubt on this point. See 
 La Prehistoire, Ed. 1910, pp. 487 and 530. 
 
18 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 requisitioned for flakes to be employed as knives. 
 The one characteristic form being what is termed 
 the " Pointe a cran." 
 
 This is shaped very like a short modern knife, 
 pointed at the end and with a narrowed portion, or 
 " tang," as if for insertion in a handle. Harpoons, 
 daggers, &c., were now entirely made of bone, ivory 
 and stag's horn. 
 
 It is in the Magclalenian period that paleolithic art 
 attains its maximum. The classical etchinQs on 
 ivory, bone and slate, with their spirited and lifelike 
 representations of the mammoth, reindeer, hunting 
 scenes, &c., are of the 21agdalenian period, as are 
 most of the now well known paintings of animals, 
 &c., on the walls of cave-dwellings. 
 
 The climate in Central Europe during Magdalenian 
 times must have approximated that of Southern 
 Canada at the present day, the summers being hot, 
 and the winters extremely cold. The fauna was 
 much the same as that of the Solutrian period, the 
 mammoth and the reindeer were abundant, but it 
 seems the leopard and the hyena had passed from the 
 scene. There is, however, much haziness with 
 regard to this question, and an unmistakable etching 
 of the head of a woolly rhinoceros amongst some 
 Magdalenian relics, shows that it is probable that 
 this congener of the, even then, very remote 
 Mousterian man, was still to some extent living in 
 Magdalenian times. 
 
 At the close of the Magdalenian period — that is at 
 the horizon where the relics characteristic of the period 
 
TUE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 19 
 
 cease to occur, there was as I have already said, long 
 supposed to be a gap in human succession, for in all 
 stations which had been investigated, geological strata 
 had accumulated over the Magdalenian relics and no 
 further evidences of man were apparent until those of 
 comparatively civilized " Neolithic " times were met 
 with, and these last were associated with a totally 
 different fauna — the fauna of to-day, with domesticated 
 animals, polished stone implements and pottery. We 
 were thus confronted with what was termed the 
 " hiatus." But the research of recent years has led to 
 the discovery of the existence of intermediate races, 
 giving us an unbroken chain. In caves at Mas 
 d'Azil (Ariege) la Touronne (Haute Garonne) Oban 
 (Scotland) and other localities, ranging from Scotland 
 to the Pyrenees, relics and other evidences which mark 
 a later Paleolithic, or transitional period, have been 
 found in fair abundance. 
 
 To represent this period, the terms " Azilian " and 
 " Tourassian " are both employed, but the majority of 
 archaeologists are in favour of the former. 
 
 Azilian Pkriod. 
 (From Mas d'Azil, Ariege). 
 
 The industries which mark this period do not show, 
 as we should imagine, an advance in culture, but on 
 the contrary, a decided retrogression, for the fine arts 
 of the Magdalenians— etchings, carvings and paintings 
 — disappear, and neither their like nor their quality 
 again occur among the relics of prehistoric man. 
 
 Flint as an asset was still at a discount, blades and 
 scrapers alone being made of this material, bone, ivory 
 
20 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 and stag's horn being the materials employed for all 
 else. 
 
 The harpoons were not round-shafted, light and 
 elegant, as were those of the Magdalenians, but flat- 
 shafted and coarse, and of a form which persisted 
 through the following Neolithic periods. 
 
 The climate, it seems, in the Azilian period was 
 much as it is to-day. The mammoth had become 
 extinct, the reindeer had removed to northern latitudes 
 and the red deer had become plentiful. 
 
 "Whether pottery had yet been invented is an 
 undecided point. 
 
 THE NEOLITHIC AGE. 
 
 Tardenoisian Peeiod. 
 
 (From Fere en Tardenois, Aisne). 
 
 The introduction of the term Tardenoisian is 
 
 considered necessary by de Mortillet to represent the 
 
 earliest evidences we have of actually Neolithic man, 
 
 as distinguished from those later and more abundant 
 
 evidences of his sojourn in the way of Megalithic 
 
 monuments — cromlechs, dolmens, &c. 
 
 The Tardenoisians, according to the authority just 
 named, were wandering hordes that had come from 
 the east and had mingled with the last of the 
 Magdalenians (or more probably the Azihans). Not 
 settling down as agriculturists but leading, at least at 
 first, a more or less nomadic life. 
 
 The relics of these early Neolithic people are fairly 
 abundant throughout Europe, and are distinguished 
 from those of the succeeding races by the absence of 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF rREniSTOIlIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 21 
 
 polislied implements. Pottery is found amongst the 
 relics, but it is of a crude type. 
 
 When remains of the people themselves are found, 
 it is seen that the skulls are almost invariably of the 
 long form — Dolicho-cephalie, whilst those of their 
 immediate successors are almost as invariably of the 
 round form — Brachy-cephalic. 
 
 The long burial mounds known as " Long Barrows " 
 as distinguished from the " Round Barrows," 
 " Dolmens," etc., and which are so well represented 
 throughout the British Isles no doubt mark the period 
 when the descendants of these people had commenced 
 to settle down, and to become blended with succeeding 
 races. Thus we get the aphorism " Long Barrows — 
 Long Skulls, Round Barrows — Round Skulls." 
 
 ROBENHAUSIAN PERIOD. 
 
 (From Rohenliausen, a hamlet in the Canton of Zurich). 
 This is the full Neolithic period abundantly 
 represented by Megalithic structures throughout these 
 lands. 
 
 The uniformity of the human type, so fairly constant 
 in Paleolithic times, now, it appears gives place to 
 much diversity, there having been immigrations into 
 North-western Europe of various tribes from the East 
 and probably from the South.* 
 
 Mr. G. Temple, in his Drama of the Lake dwellers,'\ 
 (referring it is true but to the latest phase of the 
 Neolithic period) thus graphically describes tliese men 
 and their environment : 
 
 * Vide la Prehistoire, p. 6G5. 
 I Progress 1883. 
 
22 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEK OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 " The land is shaggy with wood and morass, ages 
 have passed since the last mammoth gave up the 
 ghost and bequeathed his bones to a distant posterity 
 as a memorial of a mighty race worsted in the fight 
 with nature. V/ild oxen, boars and elks make their 
 lair in tho l^oshy depths. 
 
 There wolves and bears compete with man for the 
 prizes of the chase, while on the rivers the otters 
 thrive unmolested and the beaver-dam is in its palmy 
 days. 
 
 It is in such a world as this that Neolithic man 
 appears to the imagination. A time in which single 
 families inhabited caves in savage isolation, and 
 struggled unaided with the fierce denizens of the 
 forest for the means of life, must have been to him 
 little better than a tradition. He is a member of a 
 community, accustomed to take thought for the 
 general maintenance and defence. He possesses 
 flocks and herds, the horse is his servant and the dog 
 his companion in the chase. 
 
 Patches of grain are ripening in the forest spaces, 
 and with the practice of agriculture there has 
 developed in him the genius of thrift and industry. 
 Like the Celt of to-day, he adds the craft of fisherman 
 to that of husbandman, or, familiarized with river- 
 travelling, uses his fire-hollowed canoe to effect barter 
 with neighbouring communities. 
 
 Spindle and distaff are plied by the women of the 
 household, and bone needles are busy piecing 
 together garments of skins. 
 
 His dwelling seems to have taken its form from 
 local circumstances. In one place it is a species of 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 23 
 
 pit or hut circle, in another it is a log cabin, in yet 
 another it is a crannoge or combined clay and wood 
 structure erected on an islet." 
 
 De Mortillet, after givinc: much the same description 
 of Neolithic man, touches the more seamy side, and 
 says : 
 
 " With the domestication of animals, and agriculture, 
 came war for the possession of the soil, and religion, 
 eutortahied and exploited as a powerful means of 
 domination, then appeared in Europe."* 
 
 Be this as it may, it is certain that in this period 
 we find the first evidences of warfare, and skulls 
 cracked by the battle axe become an appreciable 
 element among the relics. 
 
 Barbed arrow tips and stone axes, symmetrical and 
 often highly polished, are the characteristic implements 
 of the Robenhausian period, but selected pebbles, 
 simply bevelled at one edge, as used by the earlier 
 Neolithic people, are still largely employed. 
 
 Pottery is now made of finer clay, and some articles 
 bear the lines of the potter's wheel, and are ornamented 
 with dots, lines, and chevrons. 
 
 Personal ornaments seem to be much in vogue, and 
 ])eails, anklets, etc., are beautifully made from choice 
 fragments of stone. But sculpture has for its highest 
 standard coarse and horrible caricatures of the 
 human form. 
 
 Immense labour is bestowed upon sepulture— or at 
 least upon that of the notables— as the abundant 
 
 loe ciL, p. G05. 
 
24 PREniSTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 cromlechs, dolmens, etc., which these people have 
 bequeathed to us amply testify. 
 
 Neolithic man appears to be a sun-worshipper. 
 His burial chambers are directed towards the east, 
 and symbolic signs on some of the late Neolithic 
 dolmens of Britanny represent the sun in connection 
 with barley sheaves — " The God and his Gifts." 
 
 Among the abundant human remains of this period, 
 well set bones of broken limbs, and trepanned skulls, 
 show that the surgeon's art was practised with 
 considerable skill, and it is suggested that the little 
 hoards of finely pointed pigmy flints we sometimes 
 find, may represent the surgeon's set of operating 
 implements. '•• 
 
 Together with the relics of "the later portion of this 
 period we begin to meet with articles made of bronze ; 
 then gradually this metal supersedes stone for weapons 
 and industrial implements, and we pass from Neolithic 
 times into the " Age of Bronze." 
 
 THE BRONZE AGE. 
 
 As just stated, this period dawns by slow degrees. 
 Whilst with the latest Neolithic relics we begin to 
 find axes, etc., of bronze, we also find numerous stone 
 implements, the details of which clearly indicate their 
 having been constructed on models of bronze ones, 
 this suggesting that whilst the metal was known, it 
 was not within the reach of all. 
 
 That tixe original bronze articles are not of local 
 manufacture is indicated by their form and the designs 
 upon them, which are decidedly Oriental. f 
 
 * See British MediealJournal July 26tb, 1913. p. 157. 
 f See " Archaeology," in Encydopcedia Britannica. 
 
THE CLASSIFICATION OF PREHISTORIC HUMAN INDUSTRIES. 25 
 
 Later on we find abundant evidences of local bronze 
 industry. — The sites of foundries, with moulds and 
 masses of surplus metal which had been poured in 
 hollows in the ground, broken up implements intended 
 for the melting pot, etc. 
 
 Some authorities consider that the employment of 
 copper preceded that of its alloy, but others say that 
 of this there is not sufficient evidence.* 
 
 Then as bronze had slowly replaced stone for arms 
 and industrial implements, so now bronze begins to 
 give place to iron, and we enter the iron age and hail 
 the dawn of history. 
 
 * loe cib. 
 
— 2G — 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARCEIAEO- 
 LOGICAL DISCOVERY. 
 
 rriHE story of the rise and progress of archaeology 
 -^ is an interesting one. 
 
 As far back as the 16th century we have records of 
 the discovery of flint implements, which at that time 
 were the source of much superstition. The arrow 
 tips and other artificially pointed flints were " Elf 
 darts," and the more massive forms, such as the 
 Neolithic axes, were " Thunderbolts," beliefs which 
 still hold with the more uncultured in most rural 
 districts throughout Europe. 
 
 Certain scientists, however, soon came to the 
 conclusion that these things were of human workman- 
 ship, and in 1797 John Frere referred to some that he 
 had found in Suffolk " to a very remote period, even 
 beyond that of the present world, and to a people 
 who had not the use of metals." 
 
 Professor Haddon, from whose work " The History 
 of Anthropology " I quote the above, goes on to say : — 
 
 " The belief of the middle ages that everything 
 inexplicable was the work of the Devil, was succeeded 
 by an ascription of all objects of unknown antiquity 
 to the Druids or the Romans ; but to neither of these 
 could be attributed the finds which were being made 
 at the beginning of the 19th century in the Danish 
 kitchen-middens and dolmens, in the Swiss lake- 
 dwellings, and in the caves and gravels of England 
 
THE RISE AND PROGSESS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 27 
 
 and France. Still, many years were to pass and 
 many heated discussions wore to be held, before 
 archaeology came to be recognized as an ally of 
 anthropology, and prehistoric man obtained credence." 
 
 Of the various discoveries of flint implements in 
 association with bones of extinct animals in river 
 gravels and in caves, and of the controversies to 
 which these gave rise, there is an abundant literature. 
 
 The most remarkable of these discoveries in 
 England at least, was undoubtedly that of Kent's 
 cavern in Devonshire, discoveries which commenced 
 in 1824. 
 
 But in all these the opponents of the doctrine of 
 man's high antiquity found ground for quibble, 
 " Yes, the worked flints, the hearths and the burnt 
 bones, were suggestive of man's handiwork, but 
 where was man ?" 
 
 The naturalists and other scientists of the time, 
 with equal weight of authority on either side, were 
 divided. 
 
 De Boot in 1636, and Peyere in 1655 had declared 
 that such things indicated mail. Cuvier opposed the 
 doctrine and held that fossil man could not be, for 
 although human bones had been found in deep strata, 
 none had yet been found in uncontrovertible 
 association with these relics. 
 
 Now the battle-field has shifted, the presence of 
 man in even early quaternary times is accepted, and 
 the question in dispute is the actuality of man's 
 presence in tertiary times. 
 
 Of the discovery of the remains of Prehistoric man 
 
28 PREHISTORIC TIJIES AND MEN OF THE CHiVNNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 himself, the first instance we have dates from 1700, 
 when a skull was found at Cannstadt under conditions 
 which must have suggested some scientific import, 
 for it was placed in the museum at Stuttgart. There, 
 however, it was left unstudied and unconsidered for 
 135 years. 
 
 In 1828, Tournal, the Curator of the museum at 
 Narbonne, announced in the Annates des Sciences 
 Natiirelles, the discovery of human remains and 
 fragments of potterj^ associated with bones of animals 
 some of which are now extinct. (This has of course 
 simply reference to Neolithic times). 
 
 A little later the Belgian Professor Schmerling, 
 discovered in a cave near Liege, human remains 
 associated with those of the elephant and rhinoceros, 
 and in 1833 published the result of his discoveries in 
 a work entitled " Reclierches sur les ossements fossiles 
 decouvorts dans Ics eavernes de la province de 
 Liege."^' 
 
 Prof. Haddon says : " That these announcements so 
 subversive of all generally accepted notions as to the 
 antiquity of man, met with violent opposition, may 
 go without saying, but, as fresh evidence accumul- 
 ated, opposition took the form of a conspiracy [of 
 silence and for a while a certain apathy prevailed 
 with regard to the whole question of man's antiquity," 
 
 "About the middle of last century however the 
 question revived, old discoveries were reconsidered 
 and their full significance recognised." 
 
 * See de Mortillet's Le PreMstorique. 
 
THE RISE AND PROGRESS OF ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERY. 29 
 
 Much impetus was soon after given to the science 
 by further discoveries. 
 
 In ] 85G a skull and other remains were discovered 
 in a cave in the ravine of Neanderthal, on the right 
 bank of the river Dussel, in Rhenish Prussia, which 
 gave rise to much learned discussion, for the skull 
 presented characters which differed considerably 
 from the modern type. 
 
 Doubts were freely expressed by many scientists as 
 to whether it was human. Virchow, the celebrated 
 pathologist, was of opinion that it was human but was 
 diseased. Iluxley recognised the skull as human, but 
 declared it to be the most ape-like ever discovered, 
 and placed it below the Australian type, and nearly 
 to the present day the classical "Neanderthal skull" 
 was accepted as the most ancient relic of the human 
 race ever discovered. 
 
 In 188G two skulls and other human remains were 
 found associated with those of the mammoth, woolly 
 rhinocerous, cave bear, hyena, &c., in a cave at Spy, 
 in the Namier district in Belgium. Five of the nine 
 species of animals the bones of which were found 
 with the human relics being now extinct. 
 
 In 1901, in an alluvial deposit at Trinil, in Java, 
 Professor Dubois discovered what is apparently the 
 remotest relic of humanity yet discovered, viz., a 
 cranium and some associated bones and teeth. These, 
 it is said, represent an individual almost too ape-like 
 to be considered human, and yet too man-like for an 
 ape."* 
 
 * See Early Hunters, by Prof. Sollas. 
 
30 PREHISTORIC TIMES AM) MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 To this fossil the term " Pitliecanthropus, or Man- 
 ape " has been applied, and by some anthropologists 
 it is held that the individual to whom the bones 
 belonged is representative of the proto-liumans who 
 were the chippers of the Eolithic flints. 
 
 In 1907, a lower jaw, of remarkable form, was 
 found in a sand pit at Mauer, near Heidelberg, which, 
 although unassociated with other animal remains, 
 occurred under such geological conditions as to afford 
 some basis for chronology, a subject which will be 
 discussed in a separate chapter. This " Heidelberg 
 jaw," as it is now termed, seems to link Pithecan- 
 thropus with the now well-known Neanderthal type. 
 But around these very ancient relics there is still 
 much controversy and many points that call for more 
 light. 
 
 On September 18th, 1911, Dr. Henri Martin 
 discovered in a roadside cutting at la Quina, Charente, 
 an almost complete skeleton of a Neanderthal man, 
 together with flint implements of the Moustcrian 
 period.* 
 
 A notable discovery of recent years is the "Ipswich" 
 skeleton, which is claimed by its discoverer and many 
 other scientists as well, to be that of a Chelleau or of 
 an Acheulian man. The claim for such high antiquity 
 being based on the geological deposit in which it was 
 found, but whilst the argument from such data 
 appears conclusive, some scientists raise objection to 
 the claim on the grounds that these remains are of 
 the same type as modern man, whereas most other 
 
 ® Bulletin de la Societe prehistorique de la France, Oct. 1911. 
 
THE RISE .WD PROGRESS OF ARCHAEOLOGiaVL DISCOTORY. 31 
 
 ancient human relics represent more or less the 
 Neanderthaloid type, which has strongly marked 
 simian characters. 
 
 Exactly the same arguments on each side apply to 
 remains found at Galley Hill and described in 1895. 
 
 Touching this paradoxical point, Dr. Keith, writing 
 in the Bedrock for October 1912, on recent discoveries 
 of ancient man, says, — referring to Neanderthal man, 
 " He appears for a period, and is then replaced by 
 modern man. His transformation into modern man 
 is refuted by both anatomical and archaeological 
 evidence. We have therefore still to seek for the 
 primitive and ancestral forms of modern man. The 
 discoveries in England sliow that we must go a long 
 way further back in the geological record than is 
 usually believed, to find our ancestral form. At least 
 in the middle of the Pleistocene period, long before 
 the period of Neanderthal man of the Mousterian age 
 in France, modern man had appeared in England." 
 
 " It is therefore in the Pliocene formations we are 
 most likely to meet with the early forms of modern 
 
 man." 
 
 For a concise account of the various discoveries 
 connected with this subject, the reader will do well 
 to consult some of the recent pul)lications — as for 
 instance, Professor Haddon's History of Anthropology, 
 Dr. Duckworth's Prehistoric Man, Dr. Keith's 
 Ancie7it types of man, and Dr. R. R. Marett's 
 Anthropology, but he will do well to bear in mind the 
 closing sentence of de Mortillet's Prehistoire : " Mais 
 le prehistorique est une science encore jeune, qui est 
 loin d'avoir dit son dernier mot." 
 
— 32 — 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CHANNEL 
 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 rnilE reasons for the digression which forms the 
 subject of this chapter will become evident 
 further on, when we consider the changes which this 
 part of Europe has undergone during the period of 
 human occupation and the reason why certain of the 
 Paleohthic races of man, and not the others, are 
 represented in the islands. 
 
 The method by which the islands were originally 
 separated from the Continent and from one another, 
 and repeatedly re-connected and re-severed, — as well 
 as the order in which these changes took x^lace, appears 
 to me not difficult matters to trace. 
 
 Glancing at the map of North-western France, we 
 note that all the islands lie within the great bay of St. 
 Michel— or, as it is better termed by French 
 geographers, the "Golf Normanno-Breton," — Guernsey 
 being the outermost, and lying just within a line 
 drawn from Cap la Hague to Ushant, — the Northern 
 and Southern horns of the bay. 
 
 With the exception of the clays forming their 
 superficial layers, the islands consist entirely of 
 granites, diorites, gneiss, felsites. and (in Jersey) 
 volcanic tuffs and archtean shale, the latter considerably 
 hardened by contact metamorphism. The whole of 
 these rocks then representing series which resist 
 erosion in marked degree. 
 
PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 33 
 
 The rocks of the adjacent Continental coast consist 
 of Devonian shales, sandstones, conglomerates and 
 cretaceous deposits, with here and there, — e.g., at 
 Cap Flammanville, Siouville, &c., outcrops of granitic 
 rock. 
 
 From the heights above the town of Carteret it is 
 easy to perceive that these Devonian shales, &c., must 
 have once extended throughout the area of the great 
 bay, and that the Channel Islands, like Cap Flam- 
 manville, &c., represent resistant cores once embedded 
 in the more erosible formations. 
 
 The Devonian shales that surrounded the islands, 
 except for some few fragments among the pebbles 
 on the Jersey coast, have long since gone into mud, 
 whilst the sandstone and limestone pebbles, so 
 plentifully strewn around all the islands, are the 
 remnants of the harder rocks. The numerous flint 
 nodules around the shores indicate that chalk beds 
 must also have occurred in the investing matrix. 
 
 Prior to the sculpturing of the islands the Seine, 
 with innumerable tributaries, coursed where now is 
 the English Channel, reaching the sea some eighty 
 miles West of Guernsey, where the limit of the 100 
 fathom sounding line marks the border of the old 
 Continental plateau, its course being well marked by 
 the depression known as " Hurd deep." 
 
 As the work of erosion proceeded, Guernsey became 
 revealed as a promontory on the new coast line. 
 Then Guernsey and Herm, as one island, became cut 
 off from the Continent. 
 
 As erosion of the soft investing rocks continued, 
 
34 rREmsTORic times and men of tee channel islands. 
 
 Sark and Alderney appeared, whilst Jersey, deeper 
 inland, in the far recess of what is now the bay, 
 remained continental for long ages after the insulation 
 of its sister isles. 
 
 If we take up the Admiralty Chart we will note 
 that besides "Hurd deep," there are other lines of 
 deepened soundings which mark the course of ancient 
 rivers, thus, along the North coast of Jersey, and 
 between this and the groups of granitic islets known 
 as the Dirouilles and Ecrehou reefs, we can trace the 
 former course of the " Aye," which now reaches the 
 sea at St. Germain sur Aye. To the South of Jersey, 
 another line of deeper soundings marks the course of 
 the " Sienne," which, now reaching the sea at 
 Tourville, then coursed between Jersey and the 
 extensive group of granitic rocks which form the 
 Minquier reef. Then, turning to the North-west, past 
 the Southern shore of Guernsey, the Sienne together 
 with the Aye, reached the Seine at Hurd deep. 
 
 South of the Minquier reef, the Ranee, joined by 
 several smaller streams, flowed North-westward from 
 the Cotes du Nord. ••• 
 
 We now perceive Guernsey, Alderney and Sark, as 
 islands, and Ecrehou, Jersey, and the Minquier reef, 
 as promontories stretching westward from the Norman 
 coast. 
 
 From the higher portions of each isthmus — the 
 "Boeufs" and the " Anquetes" — in the case of Jersey, 
 and the Chausey islets and the "Ardennes" in the case 
 of the Minquier reef, — lesser streams, running North 
 
 * See note on Submerged Valleys in addenda. 
 
PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 35 
 
 DIAGRAM A. 
 
 nil' 
 
 iM y_^^_^_ = B M G L A M D ^=tm 
 
 Position of the Channel Islands prior to their separation 
 FROM the Continent and from EiiCH other. 
 
 The liorizontally shaded portions show existing laud ; 
 the vertically shaded ones, land removed by erosion. 
 
 This also shows the position of the islands on each 
 occasion that the land has been elevated to the extent of 
 300 feet, — as during the great forest period. 
 
 (For subsequent position of Jersey during erosion, and its 
 
 repeated position in the following land elevations and 
 
 subsidences, see diagram B.) 
 
36 PEEHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 and South, joined the westward flowing rivers, and 
 erosion creeping up each estuary, thus set free the 
 members of the Channel Archipelago.* 
 
 Probably many oscillations of land took place during 
 the long period occupied in this process, the channels 
 extending inland during periods of subsidence, and 
 deepening at their seaward ends during periods of 
 elevation. 
 
 During the process of original erosion, and during 
 a time when the land stood some sixty feet lower than 
 it does at present, the high level caves such as " Cotte 
 a la Chevre" and "la Cotte " in Jersey, the " Creux 
 Mahier " and several others in Guernsey, were 
 excavated, whilst lines of raised beach (70 foot raised 
 beach) now firmly consolidated in recesses of the 
 cliffs, and traceable in the Valleys, mark the tide 
 margin of those days. 
 
 The reason why these high level caves could not 
 have been excavated at a subsequent period are too 
 lengthy to introduce here, but I have elsewhere dealt 
 with this part of the subject.! 
 
 We next note land elevation, and the sea assailing 
 the cliffs at about the same level as it does to-day. 
 
 It was no doubt at this period that the excavation 
 of the numerous caves that tunnel the cliffs at present 
 
 * Of course the depressions marlied on the chart also represent the 
 course of each river in periods of subsequent laud elevation, but the 
 order holds good none the less, for the same channels — or the same 
 with little deviation, — would always be re-occupied by each stream, 
 as we can readily understand if we consider what would happen if 
 the land were now risen say 200 or 300 feet. 
 
 I Geology of Jersey. 
 
PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 37 
 
 DIAGRAM B. 
 
 
 Position of Jeesey with the Land 60 feet higher than 
 
 at present. 
 
 (Contour of 10 fatliom soundings). 
 
 This diagram explains the plan of the original separation 
 of the Island from the Continent by erosion, and also shows 
 the Continental position it has repeatedly held in the 
 subsequent periods of land elevation and subsidence. 
 
38 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sea-margin was commenced, and the raised beach so 
 well represented at Belcroute, Jersey, was deposited. 
 
 Land elevation must have continued until the 
 islands were again rendered continental, and admitted 
 respectively men of the Chellean and Acheulian races, 
 and a fauna which would support those ancient 
 hunters. 
 
 What period elapsed before another oscillation of 
 the land occurred, or rather by what slow degrees the 
 change took place, it is not possible to say, but there 
 must have been suflicieut time to witness a change 
 from the warm climate of the Chellean, to the cold of 
 the Mousterian times. 
 
 After the Monster ian period, or coincident with it, 
 we note subsidence setting in, and now marine deposits 
 intermingle with the rubble drift of glacial times.* 
 
 We now see the islands separate, and with a much 
 smaller area than they have at present, as may be 
 seen in the marine deposits that lie beneath the 
 present-day soil of the lower lands and stretch into 
 the valleys, t 
 
 Elevation followed, and the rubble drift and marine 
 clays around the shores emerged and became clothed 
 with vegetation, whilst gradually the islands re-united 
 and again formed part of the Continent. 
 
 * As I mention elsewhere, some authorities — but by no means the 
 majority — hold that during this glacial period, there was land 
 elevation. 
 
 This may hold good for some localities, but in these islands at 
 least, the torrential deposits of glacial times, and a marine deposit, 
 are certainly in contact. 
 
 t See E & F in diagram C. 
 
PHYSICiVL GEOLOGY OF THE CHAjra^EL ISLANDS. 39 
 
 Very probably this elevation was so great as to 
 render the British Islands Continental and to restore 
 the Continental plateau to the margin marked by the 
 100 fathom line. ■•'■ 
 
 A great forest gradually spread over this restored 
 land area ; that forest, relics of which are frequently 
 exposed around our shores and which is traced by the 
 dredge even in mid-channel : — The lower submerged 
 post-glacial forest. 
 
 How long this forest period endured— that is, what 
 interval elapsed between the periods when trees began 
 to fringe the emerging lands, and the time when the sea 
 had returned to its old domain and submerged even 
 those portions of it which lie beneath our present-day 
 soil, has never, I believe, been calculated, but, to 
 allow such alternations of land elevation and subsidence, 
 or even for the accumulation of compact forest remams, 
 14 feet in thickness, as is the case beneath some parts 
 of St. Helier, the period must have been a very long 
 one. 
 
 Subsidence again set in, the forest trees died under 
 the influence of the approaching sea and decayed in 
 situ, down to the bases of their trunks. Sand banks, 
 as they were pressed landwards at the tide margin, 
 intercepted the drainage of the land and gave rise to 
 a zone of bogs in which bog-plants grew and 
 enshrouded the old tree stumps, the story which we 
 see repeated to-day along St. Oaen's Bay, where 
 (except for temporary arrest by human intervention) 
 the St. Ouen's pond, the Mare dii Sud, and some 
 lesser bogs and marshes are sloAvly creeping landwards. 
 
 * See Siibiaerged Forest. 
 
40 rREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 DIAGRAM C. 
 
 ^>S...-^Uv 
 
 — — - - A — Recent alluvial soil, blown sand clay — 
 
 - — —'~l 4ft. to Gft 
 
 -------- o_ 
 
 -- • -"^ - 
 
 B — Upper peat bed — 1ft. to 3ft. 
 
 C — Marine deposit of clay, stone, or shell- 
 2 ft. to 5ft. 
 
 D^Lower p^at and forest bed with oalr, alder, 
 hazel, &c , and relics of Neolithic races 
 —5ft. to 14ft. 
 
 E - Marine formation - gravel, shells, sand and 
 clay— .3ft. to 5ft. 
 
 F — Clay with stone fragments — (Rubble-drift 
 of glacial age) — Oft. to 8ft. 
 
 G — Firm clay — 3ft. to 4ft. — (sometimes absent, 
 exposing rock in contact with F. 
 
 Synthetic Section of Soil beneath St. Helier. 
 
PHYSICAL GEOLOGY OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 41 
 
 Once more we note evidences of land elevation. 
 Over the marine material whicli covered tlie forest 
 remains, as the area again became dry land, vegetation 
 appeared. This vegetation is represented by our 
 " Upper peat bed," (" B " in diagram C). 
 
 This elevation could not have been very considerable 
 for no tree remains occur in the upper peat bed. The 
 remains which occur are only of such plants as would 
 grow on a flat and sandy shore. Still, as we can trace 
 this peat bed extending beyond the limits of our 
 lowest spring tides (as in St. Aubin's Bay) it is fairly 
 certain that the land elevation was sufficient to render 
 Jersey again Continental — at least as a peninsula — as 
 shown in diagram B, and to re-connect Guernsey and 
 Herm. Such connection would agree with the 
 numerous legends and traditions we have of " Con- 
 tinental Jersey," for these could not by any possibility 
 refer to the remote period of the "Age of great 
 forests." 
 
 The next change we note is the very obvious one of 
 recent subsidence. This upper peat bed, with the 
 great forest remains five feet beneath it, is now, as I 
 have just said, submerged even at our lowest spring 
 tides. 
 
 (It must here be noted that the peat and forest bed, 
 frequently exposed in St. Ouen's Bay, St. Clement's 
 Bay, St. Brelade'a Bay, Vazon Bay, &c., is not this 
 upper peat bed, but the ** Great Forest " bed, for the 
 materials constituting the upper peat bed, and the 
 marine gravel, &c., which intervenes between it and 
 the " Great forest bed," are of loose texture and get 
 
42 PREniSTOEIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 eroded and micgled with present day deposits, whilst 
 the " Great forest bed " layer is firm and elastic, and 
 thus resists erosion to a great degree. Near the 
 harbour of St. Holier, and other portions of St. Aubin's 
 Bay, such erosion however has not occurred, but the 
 whole series of deposits has been submerged without 
 disturbance). 
 
 Such then is an outline of the physical changes 
 which these islands have undergone since, say mid- 
 tertiary times. 
 
 The series of oscillations which they have undergone 
 during the human period, are clearly shown in 
 diagram C. 
 
 In some of our standard works on physical geology, 
 where oscillations of land levels in the area of the 
 British Isles are mentioned, it is stated that, after the 
 subsidence which brought the great forest regions 
 under water, there followed the land elevation which 
 has brought the British islands to about their present 
 configuration. Now, in the Channel Islands at least, 
 this is not the case, for the islands owe their present 
 configuration not to elevation but to subsidence, as is 
 witnessed by the submergence of the upper peat bed, 
 and also by the fact that the site of some buildings, 
 of which there is historical record — e.g., a manor house 
 in St. Ouen's Bay, " le Manoir de la Brequette,"* — 
 is now covered at high tide by 6 or 7 feet of water. 
 
 * See Bulletin de la Societe Jersiaiae, 1883 & 1910. 
 
— 43 — 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 
 Pre-Chellean Period. 
 
 "PRESENTING good exposures on many parts of 
 the Jersey coast and still better ones on the 
 North-western coast of Guernsey is a raised beach 
 composed of pebbles and shingle. In some places 
 these materials are bound with ferruginous sand into 
 a fairly firm conglomerate. 
 
 This beach stands at 25 feet above ordnance datum^ 
 and is probably contemporaneous with the 25ft. 
 beaches represented all through North-western 
 Europe.* 
 
 Unfortunately, in the Channel Islands no organic 
 remains occur in this beach, for the granite and 
 diorite pebbles of which it is mainly composed would 
 have reduced to powder any shells that might have 
 been present, so that there is no palaeontological 
 evidence as to its age. 
 
 But there are other data to work upon. In one 
 exposure, viz., in Belcroute Bay on the South-west of 
 Jersey, there is a very fine vertical exposure of cliff 
 which shows strata as follows. (See Plate I). 
 
 Resting in most places on bed rock, in others, on a 
 ferruginous clay, is the raised beach. This varies in 
 thickness from one to three feet. Above this is 
 blown sand partly consolidated into an incipient 
 
 * See Geikie's G7'eat Ice Age. 
 
44 PREHISTORIO TIMES AND MEN OF THE CILVNNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 ferruginous sandstone. This deposit varies from a 
 few inches to three feet in thickness. 
 
 Above this is yellow clay showing irregular lines 
 of stratification and containing a large amount of 
 angular stone fragments and some large granite 
 boulders. This deposit is from six to eight feet in 
 thickness. 
 
 On this, at one spot, is a conspicuous band of small 
 angular stones without any admixture of clay, about 
 a foot in thickness, clearly indicating the bed of a 
 stream, and at the same level as this indication of a 
 stream, there occur land and marsh shells, viz., 
 Suecinea sp.^ Helix caperata, Helix hirautus, Pupa 
 sp., &c., showing that this level marks an old land 
 surface.* 
 
 Over this again comes clay, irregularly stratified, 
 and containing stone fragments and boulders. This 
 varies in thickness from 20 feet to 40 feet, and on 
 it rests present day surface soil and vegetation. 
 
 We have therefore here clear indication of two 
 glacial episodes overlying the raised beach in 
 question — the well-known "Upper" and "Lower" 
 boulder clays. 
 
 In, and just beneath the upper one, there occur 
 relics of Mousterian times, and in, and beneath this 
 deposit at St. Brelade, have been found remains of 
 reindeer and woolly rhinoceros. 
 
 The upper boulder clay at this spot then represents 
 glacial period IV, and the lower one glacial period 
 
 * Near St. Martin's Point in Guernsey, this horizon is still more 
 clearly defined, and the shells of Suecinea, &c., are very abundant. 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 45 
 
 III, SO that the raised beach before us, antedating 
 this lower boulder clay, cannot be of later date than 
 mid-pleistocene, and is probably much older. In 
 fact, there is good argument for assuming that it is 
 much older, for, as it has been abundantly proved, 
 Mousterian man lived in these areas in mid- 
 pleistocene times, and we see that in the time of his 
 sojourn these areas must have been Continental, the 
 land probably extending to the limits shown in Prof. 
 James Geikie's map of Europe at the close of the 
 period of the Great Baltic glacier — which, with 
 modification to suit local matters, is reproduced 
 in diagram A, and a restricted insular region would not 
 afford sustenance to the great mammals, the remains 
 of which we find associated with Mousterian relics. 
 
 But when the raised beach was deposited, not only 
 must these areas have been insular, but Jersey must 
 have been of about one fifth, and Guernsey nearly of 
 one third, less area than at present. Then between 
 the beach period, and that of Mousterian man, there 
 must have been very great land elevation, one of 
 probably some two hundred or three hundred feet, 
 and one glacial and one interglacial period must have 
 elapsed. There would then seem good grounds for 
 considering this raised beach early Pleistocene or 
 even Pliocene. 
 
 Now from this beach I have obtained a considerable 
 number of flints bearing every evidence of intentional 
 chipping. They have been subjected to attrition 
 among the pebbles of a shore and their " aretes " are 
 smoothed off, still the marks of successive chipping, 
 all on one plan, and the bulbs and hollows of 
 
46 PREniSTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANOTIL ISLANDS. 
 
 percussion, are clearly defined. To the casual 
 observer, tliey may appear ordinary accidentally 
 chipped and smoothed pebbles, but to the practised 
 eye they are much more. 
 
 I have shown these flints to several French 
 Archaeologists, without saying whence they were 
 obtained, to get opinions simply on their intrinsic 
 merits, and they, in each case, were at once 
 pronounced as human artefacts and " pre-Chellean." 
 This is also the opinion of Mr. Reid Moir, who has a 
 wide experience in the very early types of flint 
 implements. 
 
 It must be noted that these were not selections 
 from a number of flints in this deposit, they were the 
 only ones occurring therein. There is therefore good 
 presumptive evidence that we have in these some of 
 the earliest evidences of human handicraft, certainly 
 pre-Chellean, and possibly Eolithic. 
 
 At La Collette in Jersey, to the South of the hill on 
 which Fort Regent stands, we have again deposits of 
 boulder clay, the portion which is exposed above 
 road level being the " upper " boulder clay. Here, 
 owing to the construction of a sea wall and road, no 
 line of distinction is now in evidence, but there can 
 be no doubt that the portion which exists low down 
 and stretches beneath the shore, some ten to twelve 
 feet below high tide level, represents the lower 
 boulder clay, the upper strata having here been 
 eroded by the sea during present day and earlier 
 periods of land subsidence. In this deposit, at its 
 lower level, there again occur unmistakable flint 
 implements. These are simply nodules, coarsely 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EAELY MAN. 47 
 
 chipped to a point at one end and flat at the other. 
 In size they range from two to three inches in length, 
 and weighing a couple of ounces, to six or seven 
 inches in length, and weighing three or four pounds. 
 The discovery of these in the first place is due to my 
 son, but Capt. H. S. Lawson and other workers have 
 found numerous examples. 
 
 Although so coarsely fashioned and representing 
 the "prentice hand," these implements are fairly 
 uniform in type. 
 
 Early Chellean is the latest date to which these 
 can possibly be assigned, and they bear a striking 
 likeness to the Eoliths in the British Museum. 
 
 How far this type is represented in the other 
 islands it is not possible to say. In the Lukis 
 Museum of Guernsey there are somewhat similar 
 ones. Collected long ago, they are not accompanied 
 with sufficient data, and even their geological horizon 
 is not given. 
 
 A photograph of some of the specimens from La 
 Collette which were collected by Capt. H. S. Lawson 
 and my son, are shown in Plate II These and many 
 others from the same horizon in other parts of the 
 island, are in the Museum of the Soeiete Jersiaise. 
 
 AcnEULIAX PEPaOD. 
 
 The Acheulian period seems to be less fully 
 represented locally than the Chellean, or early 
 Chellean, although implements of the former type are 
 not infrequently met witli. (See Plate III). 
 
 The specimens Nos. 1 and 3 here illustrated, which 
 were found on the shore at St. Clement, No. 5 
 
48 PREHISTORIO TIMES AND MEN^OF THE CH.VNNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 which, was found in the masonry of an old house at 
 St. Mary,* and Nos. 2 and 3 which were found 
 on moorland at St. Ouen, are decidedly Acheulian. 
 
 To what extent these periods are represented in 
 the other islands is not yet known, bat among the 
 many sporadic implements in the Guille-Alles and 
 the Lukis Museums in Guernsey, which have been 
 collected in Guernsey and Alderney, there are some 
 of somewhat similar type. 
 
 Although, as raised beaches and inland marine 
 deposits bear witness, the islands must have been 
 detached from the Continent and from each other in 
 earlier times, it is fairly certain that they were 
 rejoined and Continental in the periods now before 
 us, for insular and limited regions, even if they could 
 have been reached by these primitive people, would 
 not have afforded means of subsistence for races of 
 simple hunters. This being so, we must expect to 
 find similar relics equally distributed in each of the 
 islands as search is continued. 
 
 MousTERiAN Period, 
 Scattered and erratic as are the evidences of the 
 occupation of the islands during the preceding 
 periods, the case is far otherwise when the Mousterian 
 is reached, for beyond the evidences of scattered 
 implements on the moorlnnd and in the clay, Jersey 
 at least, has two important and well-defined 
 Mousterian cave-dwellings, one of which has now 
 
 * In Jersey, as in many other parts of Europe, these " Thunder- 
 bolts " as they were thought to be {Coups de Foudre), wlien built into 
 the walls of a house, were supposed to protect the structure against 
 damage by lightning. 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN". 49 
 
 yielded to science, as already mentioned, not only an 
 abundance of the implements of the period, with the 
 hearths and the relics of the feasts of Mousterian 
 man, but remains of man himself. 
 
 These two cave-dwellings, known respectively as 
 " La Cotte a la Ch^vre," St. Ouen, and " La Cotte," 
 St. Brelade, and which I will now describe in detail, 
 present some advantages over many more important 
 ones, inasmuch as they are so situated that floods, 
 which by washing in material from other localities, 
 often cause confusion, could not at any time have 
 had access to them. They moreover, bear clear 
 evidence of one period of occupation only, free from 
 admixture of types other than Mousterian. They are, 
 what French Archaeologists term, " Pure Stations." 
 
 Unfortunately the soil in Jersey contains but a 
 very small proportion of lime, and does not neutralize 
 the carbonic acid brought down by rain, so that this 
 acid acts upon bones that lie even at a considerable 
 depth in the soil, causing in most cases complete 
 decalcification. 
 
 Hence, among an enormous quantity of bone 
 material in the caves, only a few portions have been 
 obtained sound enough to admit of identification and 
 preservation. Still, as we shall now see, sufficient 
 material has been obtained to determine man and a 
 Pleistocene fauna. . 
 
 CAVE DWELLINGS. 
 
 La Cotte a la Chevre, St. Ouen. 
 
 (Plates IV and V). 
 
 This cave, the English rendering of the name of 
 
 which is " The Goat's Hut," is situated on the North 
 
50 PREHISTORIC TIMES AOT) MEN OF TEE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 of the island, about a quarter of a mile to the East of 
 Grosnez Poiut. (See Map II). It is in the extremity 
 of a little promontory with a deep and vertical gulley 
 on each side. 
 
 The cliff, of which the promontory is an extension, 
 is here 280 feet above the sea, but the promontory 
 itself is but half that height. The cave runs parallel 
 with the sides of the promontory, so that its opening 
 faces the open sea, with direct Northern aspect. 
 
 The cave floor is about 60 feet above mean tide 
 level, and the water just beneath, — that is, just 
 beyond a line of boulders that have fallen from the 
 cliff, — is 80 feet in depth at mean tide, so that the 
 floor of the cave is 140 feet above the neighbouring 
 sea-bottom ; a point which it wiU be interesting to 
 have in mind when we consider the aspect of the 
 land at the time the cave was occupied. 
 
 The floor is thirty-four feet in length, and has a 
 width varying from nine to fifteen feet, except at the 
 extreme inner end, where it terminates in an obtuse 
 point. 
 
 The roof is irregular, and ranges from ten to fifteen 
 feet from the floor, being lowest near the cave opening. 
 
 The sides, like the roof, have irregular bosses, and 
 more or less angular masses of rock intruding in 
 some places for two or three feet. 
 
 The rock in which the cave is situated is, like that 
 of the surrounding district, a fairly compact syenitic 
 granite that withstands weathering in a marked 
 degree, but in the cave roof are one or two portions 
 of looser textured granite that are yielding to 
 atmospheric influences and gradually decomposing 
 into " brick-earth." 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 51 
 
 The floor of the cave is composed as follows, from 
 surface do^vn wards : — (1) Yellow, gritty clay or brick- 
 earth, derived from the decomposition of the soft 
 portions of the roof, from eighteen inches to two feet 
 in thickness ; (2) A mixture of yellow clay or brick- 
 earth and bone breccia of greyish-white tint and 
 unctuous feel, about one foot in thickness ; (3) 
 Whitish clay and small granite fragments, about six 
 inches thick ; (4) Sea sand and pebbles, averaging 
 from one to two feet, reaching down to the bed-rock. 
 
 Some large sea-worn granite boulders rest on the 
 bed-rock, extend through the successive layers, and 
 project from a few inches to a foot or so above the 
 floor surface. 
 
 The history of these successive layers is not difficult 
 to trace. Commencing at the bottom (No. 4) ; This 
 sand and pebble marks the period when the cave was 
 excavated by the sea, probably during the period 
 when the island was being first sculptured from the 
 Continent ; (3) Marks land elevation, with the sea 
 no longer reaching the cave, but falling material 
 from the decomposing roof beginning to accumulate ; 
 (2) Period of occupation by man, for in this layer 
 occur wood and bone ashes, flint implements and 
 a large quantity of decalcified and disintegrated 
 bone. It is decalcified bone and ash which gives to 
 this layer its greyness, and the whiteness of No. 3 is 
 due (as analysis shows) to the infiltration of limy 
 material from the bone layer. That the surface layer 
 (1) like that below the horizon of occupation (3) is 
 entirely due to the slow decomposition of the roof is 
 shown firstly, by the position of the cave, which is 
 
52 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sucli as to preclude admission of clay from any other 
 source, and secondly, by tlie deposition of the same 
 material on the projecting ledges in the sides of the 
 cave. 
 
 As it was the discovery of the fact that this cave 
 had been a dwelling in the remote past that originated 
 Paleolithic research in the islands, it may not be 
 without interest to state here how that occurred. 
 
 It was in 1861, that my friend Mr. S. Lancaster 
 and I, in scrambling among the cliffs, came quite 
 accidentally upon this little cave. That it was little, 
 if at all, frequented, was plain. The beautiful 
 maritime fern Asplenium inai^inum, draped its far 
 end and portions of its roof, and a thin growth of 
 green algae {Hcematoeoecus), carpeted its floor. 
 
 Whilst resting a little while within the cave, we 
 noticed that where the rain had washed away some 
 of the clay from near its opening, there were flint 
 chips, which struck us as something unusual in a 
 flintless island like ours. But like Peter Bell with 
 his primrose, we took no lesson from them, and 
 " Paleolithic man " was in those days a doubtful 
 quantity. In fact, I do not think we had yet heard 
 of him. 
 
 Twenty years later, when Paleolithic man began to 
 claim general attention, these flint chippings came to 
 my mind with startling significance. I mentioned 
 this to Mr. Lancaster and we resolved to explore the 
 cave where we had seen them without delay. 
 
 Our first search resulted in the discovery of a very 
 great quantity of flint chippings, indicating that this 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 53 
 
 cave had been an actual workshop. We found but 
 few finished implements on that occasion, but on one 
 side of the floor and two feet from the surface, we 
 came upon a hearth of wood and bone ashes and 
 some bits of carbonized wood. A lump of nodular 
 iron pyrites, which had probably been used in 
 conjunction with a flint, for striking fire, was among 
 the ashes. The presence of bone was abundantly 
 manifest all through the same layer as the hearth, 
 but only in one spot did we find a portion in which 
 form was retained, and this would not have been 
 discernible except for the fact that in lifting a large 
 flat stone, its form was revealed in the flat impress. 
 This was half of the lower jaw of some large deer — 
 probably reindeer, but even the teeth, which alone 
 would furnish accurate determination, were in such 
 condition that their details could not be ascertained. 
 
 Such was the first step in Paleolithic archaeology 
 which was taken in these islands. Many subsequent 
 examinations of this cave by ourselves and by various 
 friends resulted in the discovery of further imple- 
 ments and a second hearth, but the presence of the 
 large boulders already mentioned, — mostly irregular 
 and undercut, rendered exploration difficult and 
 unsatisfactory. It was only in 1912, when the Societe 
 Jersiaiee undertook a systematic and thorough explora- 
 tion that the sequence of the layers, as just des- 
 cribed, and the fact that the cave was of marine origin, 
 were made clear. 
 
 On this occasion about one hundred finished 
 implements and a large quantity of chippings, were 
 brought to light. 
 
54 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 All the implements were of one type, a broad, 
 cordiform variety of tlie ^^ Pointe M ouster lenne^^ 
 a form which Mons. Comment refers to the earliest 
 portion of the Mousterian period. (Plate VI). 
 
 The grey layer, representing the horizon of 
 occupation, was found to consist, for nearly half of 
 its mass, of disintegrated bone, but, as before, only 
 small fragments, and totally undeterminable, could 
 be obtained. 
 
 However, the fact then became clearly established 
 that the cave showed but one period of occupation, 
 an early Mousterian one, whilst the great quantity of 
 flint chippings showed that it had not only been a 
 dwelling place, but the scene of a busy industry, — a 
 Paleolithic workshop. 
 
 La Cotte, St. Brelade. 
 (Plates VII and VIII). 
 
 This cave, like the " Cotte a la Chevre " at St. 
 Ouen, is one of a series formed by the sea at a time 
 when the land stood at a lower level than it does at 
 present, and probably during the time when Jersey 
 was being first sculptured from the Continent. It is 
 situated on the South-western side of the island ; in 
 the Eastern horn of the Bay of St. Brelade. 
 
 At this part of the coast, the cliffs, which are of a 
 coarse-grained ayenitic granite, rise more or less 
 vertically to an elevation of about 200 feet above 
 mean tide level, and the shore at their base consists 
 of flat granite rock, covered for the greater part with 
 large boulders which have fallen from the cliffs. 
 
 In one part of this coast there is a gorge 40 feet in 
 
• LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 55 
 
 width, which enters at right angles to the shore line 
 for a distance of about 150 feet. This has vertical 
 walls, exactly parallel with one another, and it is in 
 one of these walls, — the one with a Southern aspect, 
 and near the inner extension of the gorge, that the 
 cave is situated. 
 
 The gorge, like the cave itself, was evidently 
 formed by the removal by wave action of a dyke of 
 granite which was of less resistant structure than 
 that on either side of it, and in which the lines of 
 cleavage were horizontal. 
 
 It is very probable that the cave once extended 
 right across the gorge with its opening facing 
 seaward, and that the portion which forms our 
 present day cave is a lateral branch of the original. 
 
 The inner boundary cf the gorge is now in the 
 form of a steeply sloping talus, consisting of a 
 mixture of yellow clay or brick-earth and angular 
 masses of granite. 
 
 The cave itself, that is, the portion which still 
 exists, was up to the time of its exploration completely 
 filled with the same material as that which forms the 
 talus, this filling being due to three causes, viz., a 
 lateral spread of the talus, blocks fallen from the 
 roof, and rubble which had access through an 
 aperture, or " chimney " in the roof. 
 
 It would appear that even quite recently, in a 
 geological sense, the gorge had been completely filled 
 with rubble, and that It was throu^^h a sapping of 
 the base of this mass, resulting in a downward slide, 
 that the opening of the cave was revealed. 
 
56 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 For what long ages the cave had been thus filled 
 and sealed up, Avill be better understood when we 
 consider the general geology of the island. Here it 
 will suffice to say that the source whence this clay 
 was derived is not now possible to trace, for the 
 district for a mile or more around is flat, heather-clad 
 moorland, without clay, and consists simply of 
 granite, with a thin layer of soil resulting from the 
 decomposition of its scant vegetation. Further, both 
 the gorge and the cave are in a spur of cliff between 
 which, and the actual table-land, there is a depression 
 some thirty feet in depth. 
 
 The first intimation we have of this cave having 
 been a human dwelling dates from about 1880, when 
 Mr. S. Dancaster and the late Mr. T. Saunders, when 
 studying the geology of the district, found a flint 
 implement on the shore at the foot of the talus, and 
 tracing its source, came upon a portion of the hearth 
 which was exposed in section. Searching this, they 
 found many flint chippings and some bits of bone. 
 Various investigations of the section representing the 
 hearth, by Dr. Chappuis, Mr. Colson, Capt. Rybot, 
 and other members of the Bociete Jersiaise, resulted 
 in the discovery of several implements and more bone 
 fragments, but the loose condition of the superimposed 
 mass of clay and boulder rendered this work so 
 dangerous that it had to bo discontinued. 
 
 In 1895 the Soeiete Jersiaise employed workmen 
 and commenced the work of clearing out the cave from 
 the top. Owing to the threatening condition of the 
 whole of the surroundings, it was found that a full 
 exploration would entail an expenditure greater than 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EAELY MAN. 57 
 
 could then be incurred, so the work was postponed. 
 
 In September 1910, exploration was resumed 
 experienced quarrymen being engaged for the work. 
 
 After a few weeks' labour, sufficient of the rubble 
 filling had been removed to lay bare a portion of the 
 floor 11 feet square, to form a platform so as to afford 
 footing on the outside, and to give some idea as to the 
 extent of the cave. 
 
 The entrance, which is in the form of an irregular 
 half arch, is 25 feet in height and 20 feet in width. 
 
 Just within the entrance, the roof slopes upwards 
 into a rough dome, some 30 to 32 feet high. How far 
 the cave extended rearward could not however be 
 ascertained, for many hundreds of tons of the filling 
 rubble still occupied that portion from floor to roof. 
 
 The floor proper was not clearly defined, for layers 
 of black soil which proved to be a combination of 
 ashes, carbonized wood and clay, were mixed up with 
 whitish bone detritus, the whole forming a semi-solid 
 breccia. Flint implements and flint chippings occurred 
 plentifully all through these layers. 
 
 On the left of the entrance, and extending as far 
 back as floor had been reached, was a hearth 
 containing half a ton or so of wood and bone ashes, 
 and among the ashes were many granite and felsite 
 pebbles which bore signs of having been strongly 
 heated, and which had probably been used for 
 water boiling purposes, after the method of some 
 sa\age races of the present day, who, in default of 
 boiling vessels, drop heated stones into gourds of water. 
 
 Bone in abundance was scattered all around, 
 
— 58 — 
 
 B. 
 
 ■G 
 
 'O: 
 
 
 
 ■0 
 
 O- 
 
 
 rtn 
 
 rT^^_5^ 
 
 oacii 
 
 
 DIAGRAM I. 
 
 Synthetic vertical section of " La Cotte " and its contents at 
 
 11 feet from the entrance. (Parallel with entrance). 
 
 Scale 1 inch := 10 feet. 
 
— 59 — 
 
 Explanation of Diagram I. 
 
 A. Granite Rock. 
 
 B. Rubble of yellow clay and stone fragments, (now removed 
 
 to 25 feet froin entrance). 
 
 C. Opening, apparently communicating with ground level 
 
 above cave. (Choked with rubble). 
 
 D. Main hearth, with abundant wood and bone ashes. 
 
 Fragments of bone abundant, teeth of reindeer, woolly 
 rhinoceros, bos, horse, and of small bovid {? Capra 
 antiqua). Flmt implements plentiful. Level of original 
 occupation. 
 
 E. Continuation of hearth over fallen rubble. Bone and teeth 
 
 as above, plus Human teeth. Flint implements fairly 
 numerous. 
 
 F. Continuation of hearth over another fall of rubble. Bones 
 
 and teeth of horse and bos plentiful. Bases of horns 
 of a very large deer ( ? Cervus elephas) Molar of woolly 
 rhinoceros. Flint implements scarce. 
 
 G. Portion excavated beneath main floor level : 
 
 1. Thin layer of yellow clay and a few stone fragments. 
 
 2. Finely disintegrated granite, 1-ft. to 2 feet thick. 
 
 3. Black layer, 1-ft. to 1-ft. 6-in. thick, composed of 
 
 vegetal and animal remains, branches of ehn with ivy 
 attached. Fraginent of fossilized bone (not deter- 
 minable). 
 
 4. Whitish unctuous clay and stone fragments. 
 
 (No signs of human occupation below D). 
 
— 60 — 
 
 DIAGRAM II. 
 
 Plai of floor of " La Cotte" as explored up to Sept. 1911. 
 Scale 1 inch = 10 feet. 
 
 Explanation of Diagram II. 
 A A. Granite Rock. 
 
 B. Rubble as yet unexplored — (backward extension 
 
 probably twenty feet). . 
 
 C. Main hearth. 
 
 D. Where bones and teeth were most plentiful. Human 
 
 teeth at this spot, 3 feet above the level here 
 shown. See Diagram I. 
 
 E. Large block fallen on hearth, (now removed). 
 
 F. Flint implements abundant. 
 Upper F. Flint implements scarce. 
 
 G. No flint implements found beyond this point. 
 
LOCiL EVIDENCES OF EARLY -MAN. 61 
 
 forming cheesy, clayey deposits, ofTering no determin- 
 able portions. 
 
 Just behind the hearth, however, in a receding 
 angle in the wall rock, a mass of bone offered some 
 fairly coherent portions, as well as some teeth. These 
 were carefully removed and packed in soft material, 
 then infiltrated with gelatine and hardened. 
 
 These fragments were forwarded to Drs. Woodward 
 and Andrews, of the British Museum, for identification 
 and were shown to represent the following animals, 
 viz. : woolly rhinoceros, reindeer, a large species and 
 a small species of horse, some small bovid, — probably 
 the primitive goat Capra antiqua, and the urus — 
 Bob yrim'igenius. (The teeth of this last were 
 abundant). Portions of antlers as well as teeth of 
 reindeer, and the horn cores of a small bovid were also 
 among these. 
 
 Besides these animal remains, in the same recess 
 were nine human teeth of unusual proportions. These 
 were forwarded to Dr. Keith, of the Royal College o^ 
 Surgeons' Museum, who recognised them at once as 
 those of a Neanderthaloid man. 
 
 Of flint implements (all of one form, the typical 
 Mousterian Points a main), about 200 were obtained, 
 also many pebbles with abraded ends, which had 
 apparently been used for pounding or triturating food 
 material, also very likely as hammers for flint chipping. 
 
 At this stage the engineer in charge of the work 
 considered that it would be prudent to postpone 
 further clearing out of the rubble until some method 
 of propping the now unsupported roof had been 
 devised, so the work was suspended. 
 
G2 rREIIISTOEIC TIMES XKD MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLuVNDS. 
 
 In 1911 exploration was resumed and a portion of 
 floor 25 feet by 20 feet was laid bare. In the centre 
 of the space thus cleared was a block of granite 8 feet 
 in length and 5 feet in each other dimension, weighing 
 approximately 14 tons. This block it was at first 
 considered unnecessary to remove, but as the floor 
 was being dug and examined, it was found that the 
 hearth extended underneath it, whilst the presence of 
 a layer of ashes, bone and flint chippings on the top, 
 showed that this huge stone had fallen from the roof 
 during the period that the cave was occupied. In fact, 
 the lower, and original, hearth could be traced 
 upwards in stages, showing that repeated falls of roof 
 and rubble had taken place during the time of 
 occiipation. 
 
 These points, the diagrams will make clear. 
 
 The relics discovered in this resumed exploration 
 were, with the addition of the bases of the antlers and 
 portion of the skull of a large deer, the same as those 
 previously found. At the spot where the nine human 
 teeth had already been found, four others were now 
 discovered, raising their total to thirteen. These, 
 Dr. Keith pronounces as all belonging to one 
 individual.* 
 
 How far the cave extends backwards was not 
 ascertained, but judging from the slope of the roof, 
 which at 30 feet from the entrance begins to lower, it 
 is probable that some 50 feet is the full extent. 
 
 * These teeth form the subject of a monograph by^ Drs. Keith and 
 Knowles, in which their similarity with those of Krapina and with 
 those of the Heidelberg jaw is pointed out. 
 
LOCAL EVIDENCES OF EARLY MAN. 03 
 
 About another hundred flint implements were 
 discovered at this stage. 
 
 On the opposite side of the gorge, facing the 
 entrance of the cave and almost entirely concealed by 
 the sloping talus which forms the termination of the 
 gorge, was indication of another cave. This was 
 investigated by Mr. G. F. B. De Gruchy, the 
 proprietor of the site, and Mr. R. R. Marett, in 1912, 
 and the result of their investigation communicated 
 to the Societe Jerslaise, of which Society both these 
 gentlemen are members. Tt was then seen that this 
 second cave was a branch of the first, that is, a large 
 cave must at one time have existed in the site of 
 of what is now the gorge, and of which the two caves 
 which are now facing one another, were lateral 
 branches. 
 
 No hearth, or bones excef)t in small fragments, 
 occurred in this portion, but about a score of imple- 
 ments similar to those already described, were brought 
 to light. 
 
 The exploration of La Cotte then, whilst it may be 
 considered still incomplete, has proved highly 
 interesting, as beyond the discovery of the remains of 
 a man of the Mousterian period, it has furnished the 
 first evidences of a Pleistocene fauna in the Channel 
 Islands. 
 
 Apart from those found in these caves, unmis- 
 takable implements of Mousterian man occur in 
 considerable numbers between the upper and lower 
 boulder clays both in Jersey and Guernsey. 
 
— 64 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 ABSENCE OF EVIDENCES OF THE LATER 
 PALEOLITHIC RACES. 
 
 "XTTITH the possible Eolitliic, the Chellean, 
 ' ^ Acheulian, and Mousterian races, so well 
 represented in the islands, one would naturally 
 expect to find evidences of the immediately succeeding 
 ones, the Aurignacean, Solutrian and Magdalenian, but 
 such is not the case ; amongst the thousands of flint 
 and other stone implements that are being constantly 
 discovered in the clays and on the moorlands we seek 
 in vain for the round-ended scrapers of the Auri- 
 gnacians, the feuillc de laurier of the Solutrians, the 
 pointe a cran of the Magdalenians, the bone or horn 
 harpoons, or evidences on cave wall, bone or slab, 
 of the art of these people. 
 
 In the Channel Islands, a gap in succession here 
 presents itself, and from the relics of the crude 
 savage of the Mousterian period w^e pass at once to 
 those of comparatively modern and civilized Neolithic 
 man, so that as far as negative evidence is trust- 
 worthy, it would appear that the intermediate races 
 were never in these islands. 
 
 One point here seems to me to be conclusive. Of 
 the two caves just described, it is clear that 
 Mousterian man was the last occupant. In the 
 ' Cotte " of St. Brelade, where the hearths and 
 relics were covered by 25 to 30 feet thick of rubble 
 drift, and the cave thus completely filled in soon 
 
ABSEN'CE OF EVIDEXCES OF THE LATER PALEOLITHIC RACES. 65 
 
 after its abandonment, re-occupation would of course 
 have been impossible, but witli *' La Cotte a la 
 Chevre," the case is otherwise. Here the Mousterian 
 hearths and other relics were simply covered by the 
 slow accumulation of clay formed from the decom- 
 position of the roof, a few feet in thickness, the cave 
 even at this day presenting ample and good accom- 
 modation for a cave-dwelling people. So this one 
 would no doubt have been, — at least to some extent, 
 — occupied by these later races, had they been here. 
 Yet there is no sign of such occupation. 
 
 How then can such absence be accounted for ? 
 
 Although there are counter opinions with regard 
 to the physical aspects of these lands at the close of 
 glacial times — some claiming that the land stood 
 higher than it does now, — still, the majority of 
 authorities hold that during the glacial period there 
 was considerable land subsidence. 
 
 Now, whatever grounds there may be in other 
 districts for contrary opinion, in Jersey at least, as I 
 have already said, marine clay, shingle and shell 
 gravel, overlie and intermingle with the unmistakable 
 rubble drift of glacial times — transported clay, rock 
 fragments and boulders, — thus showing that the 
 Channel Islands were being rendered insular in those 
 later glacial times. 
 
 We then see the reason why the late Paleolithic 
 races are not represented locally. Mousterian man — 
 as glacial conditions spread southward in increasing 
 intensity — quitted these regions, following the 
 reindeer away to the South, whilst, marking his 
 exodus, came land subsidence. 
 
66 rREniSTORic times and men of the channel islands. 
 
 Then, in later times, as climatic conditions 
 improved, and when fresh races of men — the 
 Aurignaceans, Solutrians and Magdalenians— spread 
 northward, these regions were insular; little specks 
 out at sea that offered no sustenance for large 
 animals, and so pi-esented no field for men who were 
 dependent on the chase for their livelihood and who, 
 most likely, had no means of transit, even had they 
 Avished to visit them. 
 
 In the Museum of the Societe Jersiaise there are, it 
 is true, two flint implements that bear a decided 
 Aurignacean impress. One of these was found ])y 
 my son among some Neolithic relics in a dolmen at 
 St. Ouen. The other is without data, but it may 
 well be that these are from some other locality, 
 picked up and utilized by Neolithic man. 
 
 At all events, it is fairly clear that, after the 
 Mousterian, there is no further local evidence of 
 Paleolithic man. 
 
07 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EARLY NEOLITHIC (TARDENOISIEN) 
 PERIOD. 
 
 TITIIETIIER that early Neolithic period, described 
 ' ' by de Mortillet as the " Tardenoisien " (from 
 Fere-en-Tardenois, Aisiie) is represented by the 
 relics we find at a lower horizon than the usual 
 dolmenic relics, is a question which cannot be said to 
 be properly decided, but there are — in Jersey at least 
 — abundant evidences of a race that appears distinct 
 from the one we are so familiar wdth, as represented 
 by our dolmens and other megalithic structures, a 
 doliel to-cephalic people, in contradistinction to the 
 hraclnj-ce/phalic dolmen builders, and amongst whose 
 relics— although we find pottery — we do not find the 
 characteristic shapely, and often polished, stone axes. 
 
 The Tardenoisiens, de Mortillet says, were 
 wandering hordes of barbarians that reached North- 
 western Europe from the Caucasus, and were the 
 first invaders of the territories just previously occupied 
 by the Magdalenians. 
 
 De Mortillet's " Tardenoisiens " would then rather 
 seem to correspond with the " Azilians " and 
 " Tourassians " of other authorities, for the period, at 
 least, coincides. 
 
 The Jersey relics, including as they do, groups of 
 tombs, would scarcely indicate a truly nomadic race, 
 but it may well be that they represent these people 
 after they had commenced to settle down. 
 
08 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CIL^NNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 When, excavations for building, or for other 
 reasons, are made in the soil of St. Helier, when the 
 peaty surface of the thick old forest bed is reached, 
 polished stone implements and fragments of pottery, 
 bearing the ornamentation of lines, dots, &c., we are 
 so familiar with in the dolmens, are very often found. 
 And such occur even deep in the soil, beneath the 
 roots of trees. 
 
 But when we have passed right through this old 
 forest layer — in some places as much as 14 feet thick 
 — these relics cease. The same thing occurs when 
 we dig into the soil of the submerged forest beyond 
 the shore line in our bays. 
 
 This then shows that the upper layers of this 
 forest bed are what we may term the geological 
 horizon of the dolmen builders or " Robenhausians." 
 
 In an excavation recently made for building in 
 St. Helier (to be precise, in Halkett Place), when 
 the forest layer was reached, numerous fragments of 
 ornamental pottery and several of the well-known 
 Neolithic flints were found, this, of course, at the 
 horizon where Neolithic relics were to be expected. 
 But after the forest layer — with stumps of oak and 
 hazel — here eight feet thick, had been cut through, 
 and the blue clay just overlying rubble drift of 
 glacial age, was reached, numerous chipped flints, 
 and several diorite and sandstone implements were 
 found, and these, whilst all of Neolithic type, could 
 scarcely be Robenhausian. 
 
 These relics, now in the Museum of the Soeiete 
 Jersiaise, are as follows : — 
 
 (1) One of those flat, selected pebbles, bevelled at 
 
EARLY NEOLITHIC (tARDENOISIEN) PERIOD. 69 
 
 the widest end, that occur plentifully in 
 kitchen middens, and that whilst apparently 
 some of the earliest of Neolithic implements, 
 persisted into the dolmen period, at which 
 horizon they are found in small number, 
 associated with the familiar polished stone axes ; 
 
 (2) A flat diorite pebble, about 10 inches in length, 
 
 4 inches wide at its broadest end, and tapering 
 to a point at the other. This seems to have 
 served as an ordinary chopper, for its thinnest 
 edge bears unmistakable evidences of some 
 such use. It has, moreover, served as an 
 anvil for chipping flints upon, for hollowed 
 areas on its flat surfaces show the narrow 
 grooves made by flint-flake edges ; 
 
 (3) A block of sandstone, some three inches square, 
 
 which also had been used as an anvil ; 
 
 (4) A pebble with abraded ends, which had 
 
 evidently been used as a hammer ; 
 
 (5) An abundance of flint chippings. 
 
 When we consider that the trees constituting the 
 forest bed layer at this spot, growing immediately 
 upon the clay of glacial age, must represent the 
 earliest vegetation that fringed the shores as the land 
 emerged after the pre-forest subsidence, we at once 
 see that the relics found at this horizon must be of 
 much greater antiquity than those on the surface. 
 
 With the actual site of their origin before us, and 
 with the geological conditions so well expressed in 
 the strata, we cannot but ascribe these relics to the 
 very earliest portion of the Neolithic age ; close upon 
 
70 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF TIIE CILVNNEL ISL.VNDS. 
 
 —if not actually —tlie transition or "Paleo-neolitliic" 
 period. 
 
 Within tlie soil of a little grass covered islet off the 
 South coast of Jersey, there are two distinct horizons 
 of Neolithic occupation, and tlie lower of these also 
 appears to belong to this Tardonoisien period. 
 
 To understand the grounds on which these opinions 
 are based, we must first consider the geology of that 
 district. 
 
 "La Motte," or as it is more popularly termed 
 " Green Island," is a little islet in St. Clement's Bay. 
 
 It stands at about 300 yards from the shore and is 
 accessible on foot at half tide. 
 
 It is about 100 yards in length, and varies in 
 width, from 10 to 50 yards, and rises about 30 feet 
 above high tide level. 
 
 The base of the islet is the diorite rock of this part 
 of the coast, and upon this, for a thickness of about 
 15 feet, there lies yellow clay or " brick-earth." 
 
 This deposit is stratified, and contains small stone 
 fragments and some few large boulders scattered 
 throughout its thickness. This stratification, and 
 inclusion of stone fragments and boulders, shows 
 that both clay and stone were washed to their present 
 site by Hoods when the islet was part of the adjacent 
 land, and thus evidently represents the " rubble- 
 drift " of glacial times. 
 
 The adjacent shore, for a radius of about a mile, 
 stands at a level some five feet lower than the summit 
 of tlie islet, showing that erosion by rainwash— or, 
 perhaps, more probably by the sea during a period of 
 
EARLY ITEOLnnir (T-VRDENOISIF.n) tkriod. 71 
 
 submergence, lias lowered the area, whilst the islet, 
 flanked by rock and tlius protected, has retained its 
 original elevation. 
 
 That " La Motto " has more than once been 
 insulated is witnessed as follows: — Firstly, in the 
 lower portions of the adjacent shore, ten feet below 
 present surface, there lie sea sand and gravel, and 
 the familiar blue sea-deposited clay ; this marking a 
 period when the islet must have stood detached. 
 
 Secondly, on the sea-sand, clay, &c., just mentioned, 
 both inland and between the islet and the shore, as 
 well as on the islet's seaward sides, there is a layer of 
 firm black peat with abundant remains of forest 
 vegetation, this being a portion of the familiar post- 
 glacial submerged forest of our shores, so that in the 
 " great forest period," La Motte was a raised portion 
 of the general land. 
 
 Thirdly, as is shown abundantly on all sides, 
 subsidence followed the great forest period, and the 
 sea covered the lower lands and crept up into the 
 valleys, so that again La Motte was insular. Elevation 
 followed, and the vegetation which now forms our 
 " upper peat bed " grew on the marine deposits. La 
 Motte was then, once more, a part of the general 
 land. 
 
 Finally, present day subsidence, coupled with the 
 erosion of the loose deposits which overlaid the firm 
 peaty forest bed, rendered it insular. 
 
 That, throughout these vicissitudes in its history, 
 the islet was of considerably greater area than at 
 present, is of course obvious, for in each period of 
 
72 rREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 subsidence its shores have been attacked, if not by 
 actual wave action, at least by strongly impelled sea- 
 spray, whilst rains and general sub-aerial agencies 
 have done their share. Even during the last forty 
 years or so, in which I have been in intimate touch 
 with the locality, it has suffered considerable diminu- 
 tion of area. 
 
 When storms from the South-west accompany high 
 spring-tides, the spray attacks the base of the 
 stratified clay deposit, with the result that, sapped to 
 some extent at its base, masses of the clay slip down, 
 exposing clean cut and vertical sections of, all the 
 strata. Thus, on quite half of its circumference, the 
 sides of the islet are vertical and allow good study. 
 
 Over the compact, stratified clay or brick-earth, 
 there lies about 4 feet thick of fine textured clay or 
 loess, mingled to some extent with sand ; this deposit 
 is apparently due to aeolian agency. 
 
 Above this comes blown sand, clothed with 
 maritime vegetation, this marking the time when the 
 islet was last connected with the shore, and formed 
 part of the sand-dune covered area of the coast. 
 
 This digression, which I fear may have been a 
 little tedious, brings us to our subject. 
 
 Below the vegetable soil and blown sand deposit, 
 and upon the surface of the fine loess, are abundant 
 evidences of Neolithic occupation. In fact this 
 horizon may be termed a kitchen-midden. 
 
 Charcoal, bones of ox, pig, red deer, and 
 abundant shells of limpets, form a conspicuous layer. 
 Here also occur fragments of pottery— some of fine 
 
EARLY NEOLITHIC (tARDENOISIEN) PERIOD. 73 
 
 texture, and ornamented with chevrons, dots and 
 lines. 
 
 The usual flat pebbles, bevelled at their broadest 
 end, so frequent among Neolithic relics are also 
 numerous, and flint chippings occur plentifully. 
 
 Although no polished or well-made axes or carefully- 
 wrought flints, have so far been traced, it is still 
 evident that we have here evidences of the same race 
 of men as those who constructed the cromlechs and 
 dolmens of these islands. Note must be taken of the 
 fact that, at this horizon, the abundant bones are in 
 firm and coherent condition. 
 
 The occurrence of shells of coast snails — Helix 
 virgata, Helix pisana, and Bulimus aeutus, mingled 
 with the relics, as well as the limpet shells, show that 
 when this horizon was occupied, the sea was not very 
 far away.* 
 
 Beneath this zone of human relics is, as we have 
 seen, the deposit of fine loess. This deposit, except 
 at its margins where wind and rain have reduced it, 
 is nowhere less than 4 feet thick, and must have 
 accumulated slowly, but throughout its thickness 
 there is no sign of human or other occupation. 
 
 Passing through this deposit we reach the surface 
 of the firm stratified clay, and it is at this horizon 
 that occur those evidences of that early Neolithic 
 race with which we are for the moment concerned. 
 
 In May, 1911, after a landslide due to a storm, my 
 son noticed in a vertical section, at the surface of the 
 
 * This, of course, was not the period of present sea proximity, but 
 of the time when the sea firf^t submerged the great surrounding 
 forest land. See chapter dealing with local evidences of land 
 elevation and subsidence. 
 
74 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 firm clay, what appeared to be sections of two small 
 stone chambers in line with one another, on opposite 
 sides of a little promontory which was about 11 feet 
 across. 
 
 One of these structures was facing East, the other 
 West. A layer of stones — like a rough paving — 
 occurred at the same level (Plate XI). 
 
 The attention of the Societe Jersiaise was called to 
 this discovery, and exploration of the site was com- 
 menced at once.'* 
 
 The little structures, which had been revealed in 
 section, proved to be two stone tombs placed end 
 to end, and as excavation was continued, thirteen 
 others were discovered. 
 
 One of these tombs was about C> feet in length and 
 some 18 inches in width and depth, but the majority 
 were about 4 feet long and 16 inches in each other 
 dimension, whilst one was evidently that of an infant, 
 being but 16 inches long and 9 inches in Avidth and 
 depth. (Plate XII). 
 
 All were constructed on one plan. Irregular blocks 
 of stone were so placed on the ground surface that 
 their flattest sides — or ends, as the case might be — 
 were inwards, giving symmetry to the interior of the 
 tomb, and these were roofed over by other blocks of 
 stone with their flat sides downwards, and with other 
 stones piled on these. 
 
 As the tombs were brought to light and their cap- 
 stones removed, it was found that they were compactly 
 
 * When the proprietor of the site was approached for permission 
 to explore, this gentleman— Judge Gervaise Le Gros generously made 
 a deed of gift, presenting the islet itself to the Society. 
 
EARLY NEOLITHIC (tARDENOISIEN) PERIOD. 76 
 
 filled with the yellow clay or " loess," of their site, 
 which must have been washed in by rains through 
 the abundant crevices between the stones. So com- 
 plete had been this inliltration of clay that the few 
 long bones which were obtained were filled with it, 
 and even some snail shells that had been washed in, 
 were thus filled into their innermost whorls. 
 
 In most of the tombs decalcification of the bones 
 had been so complete that not a trace, beyond some 
 whitish lines of infiltration into the underlying clay, 
 could be seen. Still, by the exercise of great care, 
 three skulls, a number of teeth, and a few long bones, 
 were obtained in such condition as to admit of preser- 
 vation. 
 
 The three skulls, which are now in the Museum of 
 the Societe Jersiaise, and one of Avhich is shown in 
 Plate XIII, are all dolichoccplialic, their cephalic indi- 
 ces being 69, 70 and 72 respectively. Or, in plainer 
 terms, their breadth stands as 09, 70 and 72 per cent, 
 of their length. 
 
 On the same level as these tombs, that is, standing 
 immediately on the surface of the firm stratified clay, 
 was a cairn or mound of angular stones, ninety feet in 
 length, about 20 feet in width, and some 5 to G feet 
 high at its summit. 
 
 This was examined by trenching through it at right 
 angles down to the clay on which it rested. 
 
 It was then seen that it was not a " barrow," or a 
 " tumulus," covering any structure— such as the 
 tumuli which cover dolmens— but Avas simply a mass 
 of stone which by degrees had been placed on bodies 
 
76 PEEHISTORIO TIMES Ai^'D MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 deposited on the ground surface, tlie cairn being 
 extended in area as bodies accumulated. 
 
 At the lower level of this mound, and permeating 
 the clay beneath, were white lines of carbonate of 
 lime, — the recrystallisation, as carbonate, of the dis- 
 solved phosphate of lime of the bones. 
 
 To what extent, and for how long a time had this 
 process been carried on, is shown by the fact that 
 down to ten or twelve feet beneath, — in the stratified 
 clay, — the lime from the bones has formed abundant 
 masses of those concretions termed lussviannschen. 
 
 Besides many crudely chipped flints without distinc- 
 tive character, and one pebble implement, there were 
 in the tombs some fragments of very rough pottery. 
 These fragments were of so crude and ill-made a kind 
 that they could be crushed with the fingers. 
 
 We thus see by the presence of pottery that the 
 period of these relics was certainly Neolithic, but, as 
 I think we shall now clearly see, a very early phase 
 of that period. 
 
 The grounds on which I base my claim for the 
 great antiquity of the relics of the lower horizon are : 
 
 Firstly, the condition of the bone. In the upper, 
 and ordinary Neolithic horizon, we find the bones, as 
 in most dolmenic burials, fairly sound. In the lower 
 horizon, they have not only decalcified, but sufficient 
 time has elapsed since they were laid there, to allow 
 their lime to infiltrate the underlying strata and there 
 to form new combinations — the Ibssmannsclien. 
 
 Secondly, whilst the sea was within reach of the 
 people of the upper horizon, so that they could obtain 
 
r^f-r 
 
 EATvLY NEOLITHIC (tARDENOISIEN) TERIOD. 77 
 
 limpets, and that coast snails occur among these relics, 
 at the lower horizon there are no marine shells and 
 the snail shells that occur around tlie tombs are those 
 of woodland species — Helix nemoralis, Helix hortensis 
 and Helix aspersa. 
 
 Again, as on a low and flat shore, sand is blown 
 inland for long distances — some miles where there 
 are no hills to arrest its spread — no sand had reached 
 this spot at the time the tombs were erected. 
 
 The few fragments of pottery at the tomb horizon 
 are not of the kind we find among the general and 
 widely diffused Neolithic relics. Everything then 
 points to the lapse of an immense period between 
 these two horizons, and although the lower may not 
 actually be among the first evidences there are of 
 Neolithic man — of the wandering hordes of " Tarde- 
 noisiens "— yet they may well be relics of these people 
 when they began to become sedentary. 
 
 It has been urged by some local archaeologists that 
 this mode of burial — stone tombs— is suggestive of a 
 more recent race, but there is evidence of the same 
 method of tomb construction even in the more remote 
 Magdalenian period.'---' 
 
 It is possible that there may be other local evidences 
 of these early Neolithic races, for instance, the relics 
 found in a roadside cutting at Petit Port, in Jersey, 
 in clay near Fort George, in Guernsey, and in many 
 other localities, may well belong to such races, for 
 amongst these abundant relics in the way of crude 
 pottery, pebble implements and roughly made flint 
 
 * See Sollas's Ancient Eunlera, under " Cro-Magnou." 
 
78 rnEHiSTORic times and men of the channel islands. 
 
 ones, not one of the characteristic stone axes of the 
 full Neolithic period has been discovered. 
 
 Still the two instances I have dwelt upon— the 
 relics beneath the forest remains in St. Helier, and 
 the La Motte burials— are, I think, sufficient to 
 establish the fact that those races once occupied these 
 lands. 
 
 There is in the Museum of the Societe Jersiaise a 
 human cranium wdiich was discovered in 18G1 by two 
 local archaeologists— the late Rev. R. Bellis and the 
 late Mr. Charles Bott —as they were digging for flint 
 implements in a vertical exposure of clay at "La 
 Motte." (Plate XIV). 
 
 By its position, a level some eight or ten feet still 
 lower than the lower horizon of Neolithic occupation, 
 and by the fact that the strata above and around were 
 apparently undisturbed, it was assumed by myself and 
 others that it must date from Paleolithic times. 
 
 No other bones occurred with it, and this fact, 
 coupled with that of undisturbed strata, shows that 
 it is not from an interment. 
 
 If it is of later than pala?olithic date, then its 
 presence at this level can only be accounted for by the 
 possibility of there having been a vertical slip of the 
 whole of the strata at that part of the little island— a 
 "faulting" as this movement is termed in geology — 
 due to the sea having undermined the bank. 
 
 Dr. Keith has made a careful examination of this 
 relic, and says ; " The cranium is undoubtedly that 
 of a woman, and from the open state of the sutures 
 one may infer that she was between 30 and 40 years 
 of age at death. 
 
EARLY NEOLITHIC (tAEDENOISIEN) PERIOD. 79 
 
 " The cranium possesses highly evolved characters 
 and has no resemblance to Neanderthal crania. 
 
 " It belongs to that type of skull with which we are 
 familiar in late Palceolithic and early Neolithic Euro- 
 pean races. It belongs to the " river-bed " type ; the 
 Tilbury skull is its male counterpart."" 
 
 I chanced to be present when the discovery of this 
 skull was made, and remembering its horizon and the 
 undisturbed condition of the surrounding strata, I 
 have, until quite recently, been of opinion that it must 
 be Paleolithic, the possibility of there having been a 
 vertical drop of the strata at this spot not having 
 until now occurred to me. It is therefore very possible 
 that it belongs to the same race as that represented so 
 fully at the level some feet higher, viz., to represent a 
 member of the early Neolithic or " Tardenoisien" 
 race, the skulls found at the latter horizon showing 
 the same characters. 
 
 * Report on human crania in the Museum of the Socu'lc Jersiaisc, 
 by Arthur Keith, Conservator of Museum, Royal College of Surgeons, 
 England. — Bulletin of the Socicte Jersiaise for 1912. 
 
— 80 — 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE LATER NEOLITHIC (ROBENHAUSIAN) 
 
 PERIOD. 
 
 npHE relics of this period, Dolmens, Cromlechs, 
 -^ Menhirs, etc., are abundant in all the islands 
 except Sark, where, if such have existed, no trace 
 now remains. 
 
 Poingdestre, the Jersey historian, states that in his 
 time (1609-1691) there Avere in Jersey no less than 70 
 dolmens, whilst Guernsey, Herm and Alderney have 
 either the remains, or authentic records, of some 40 
 more. A study of the mimerous and unnecessarily 
 massive nnhewn pillars forming gateways to fields 
 throughout the islands, and especially in Jersey, 
 shows what has become of many of them. 
 
 When we consider that these ponderous sepulchral 
 structures could not possibly have been erected for 
 the disposal of the bodies of the rank and file, but in all 
 probability only for those of magnates, we cannot but 
 infer that the local Neolithic population must have 
 been very considerable. 
 
 Of dolmens, or of composite structures embracing 
 dolmens, all that remain in tlie islands are approxi- 
 mately as follows. 
 
 In Jersey, either intact or in fair preservation, nine. 
 In Guernsey, five ; and in Herm, four or five. 
 
 Of these, the best preserved are those of I'Ancresse 
 and I'Eree, in Guernsey, and of Faldouet, Mont 
 
THE L.VTER XEOLITHIC (rOEEXHAUSIAN) PERIOD. 81 
 
 Cocliou, Ilougue Boete, le Couperon, and Mont 
 Grantez in Jersey. (See Maps II & III and Plates 
 XV & XVI). 
 
 As descriptions of these structures have been 
 already published, e.g., by Capt. Oliver, Mr. Lukis 
 and others in Archaeologia and in other journals, 
 and full descriptions of the Jersey ones occur in the 
 Bulletins of the Societe Jersiaise, and of those of 
 Guernsey in the proceedings of the Guernsey Society 
 of Natural Science and local research, it is not 
 necessary to dwell upon them here further than to 
 point out where some of them may afford some clue 
 as to the period of their erection, a matter which has 
 hitherto been neglected. There is also another 
 matter which has failed to receive attention and this 
 is one of the several which may help us to arrive at 
 some conclusion with regard to their date. This 
 refers to the dolmens and menhirs that lie amidst the 
 remains of the submerged forest off our shores. 
 
 At Ilerm, near "la Rosiere," covered at high tide 
 by twenty feet of water, there is one which I believe 
 has been recorded, but without further note, whilst, 
 at a distance of about half a mile from this, there is a 
 mass of huge stones — not outcrops of rock, but piled 
 stones — known as the " Vermerette Rock," which 
 bears strong evidence of being the ruins of another. 
 
 At La Rocque point in Jersey, covered by some 
 twenty feet of water at high tide, there is a block of 
 the hard conglomerate — or rather, volcanic agglo- 
 merate—of St. Catherine's. This is rectangular in 
 form, rather flat, and about 15 tons in weight. It 
 lies j ust over five miles from the spot whence it must 
 
82 PREmSTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 have been derived, and no other portions of the same 
 stone occur in its vicinity.'"'- 
 
 This peculiar bloclv, by reason of its form and its 
 locahty, has long puzzled local geologists, and no 
 adequate theory to account for its presence has 
 hitherto been propounded. It however appears 
 very evident from its shape and size, as well as by 
 its position — on a slight elevation of an otherwise 
 flat shore, and with remains of submerged forest 
 around it — that it is the capstone of a dolmen ; 
 whilst amongst the large blocks of granite scattered 
 around, it is not difficult to trace its once supporting 
 pillars. 
 
 In St. Brelade's Bay— or that division of the bay 
 known as le Ouaisne, at half tide margin there are five 
 blocks of granite set upright, with their bases in the 
 peaty soil of submerged forest. These also bear 
 strong indication of being the ruins of a dolmen. 
 
 Of other Neolithic relics beyond the present shore 
 line, are two fallen Menhirs. One of these, a block 
 of fine grained granite about 12 feet long and 3 feet 
 in diameter, lies in proximity to a large fallen oak on 
 the peaty soil of the forest bed 2-10 yards due South 
 of the Dicq rock at Greve d'Azette in Jersey. The 
 rock of this vicinity is diorite. 
 
 The other, 18 feet in length, 9 feet by C feet in 
 diameter at the base, and tapering to a point, lies on 
 a bed of gravel, aboiit lO'O yards from the bhore line 
 at Le Hocq, in Jersey. In proximity to the first 
 named, in the peaty soil, there occur abundant flint 
 
 * The dolmen of " le Couperon " is constructed entirely of the 
 same kind of stone as this block. 
 
THE LATER NEOLITHIC (rOBENHAUSIAn) PERIOD. 83 
 
 cliii3pings, and quite recently my dangliter-in-law 
 Las found at the same spot an elaborately finished 
 and polished miniature flint axe, similar to those 
 occurring at Morbihan, in Brittany. 
 
 During 1912 and 1913 no less than three previously 
 unexplored dolmens were opened in the islands. 
 
 Within the grounds of the Manor of La Hougue Boete, 
 or more correctly the Manoir de St.-Jean, in Jersey, 
 a large mound termed " la Tete du Fief" had long 
 been suspected to be a tumulus enclosing a dolmen, 
 but it was only in 1912 that investigation was made, 
 this being carried out by the present proprietor of 
 the Manor, Mr, A. Raworth, Seigneur de St. Jean. 
 
 By means of a tunnel opened on the South-eastern 
 side of the mound, a chamber, some six feet square 
 at the floor, and five feet in height, was reached. 
 Within this were the remains of an interment, and 
 abundant teeth of horse, fragments of pottery and 
 numerous flint chippings. 
 
 It was evident that this chamber had never been 
 explored, but decalcification of bone had been so 
 great that little could be gathered as to the mode of 
 interment. 
 
 Efforts have been made to show that the chamber 
 had enclosed a " warrior and his horse,"* but there 
 appears to me nothing to justify this assumption. 
 There were teeth, not of one, but of several horses, 
 suggesting that horses' heads, as customary food 
 offerings to the dead, had been placed with the 
 burial. 
 
 * Dr. DeyroUe and Capt Mauger, in BvUetins and Memoirea de la 
 Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris, May, 1912, p. 1G5. 
 
Si PKEDISTOniC TIMES AXD MEN OF THE CIIAXNEL 1SL.^T)S. 
 
 Only the interior of this dolmen has so far been 
 revealed, but it appears to be one of the most massive 
 in the Channel Islands, the blocks of granite forming 
 sides and roof being of exceptionally large dimensions. 
 
 In September 1912, the Societe Jersiaise under- 
 took the exploration of a dolmen at St. Ouen which, 
 although it had been previously recorded, had 
 certainly never been thoroughly examined."* 
 
 This structure, known as " Ze Dolmen des Monts 
 Grantez,'^ stands on the tableland, near the brow of 
 one of the hills overlooking St. Ouen's Bay. 
 
 It stands 212 feet above sea level and about half a 
 mile from the coast line. 
 
 This is of the form which is chiefly represented in 
 the islands, viz., a large chamber with a covered 
 avenue of approach, but with the addition of a large 
 side chamber. (Plate XVI). 
 
 Within this dolmen there w^ere eight interments, 
 as shown on the plan which follows, j 
 
 In September 1912, some megalithic remains of 
 remarkable structure were discovered at ITslet, in 
 Guernsey. These consist of a covered chamber — a 
 dolmen proper — surrounded by an irregular circle of 
 stones, and on the outside of this, three smaller 
 circles, two of wdiich enclose rectangular tombs. 
 There were no remains of interments, nor, beyond an 
 entire urn and some pottery and flint fragments, any 
 other relics. 
 
 * Lukis's Manuscripts, Guernsey. 
 
 t Photographs, and full details of this dolmen, appear in the 
 Bulletin of the Societe Jersiaise for 1913. 
 
GRANTEZ DOLMEN. 
 
 PLAN OF FLOOR AND INDEX TO RELICS. 
 
 t = Inteinaents. 
 
 A. Body in sitting position, 
 facing South. 
 
 B. Body on side in crouched 
 position, below floor level. 
 
 C. D. E. F. G. Bodies on side in 
 crouched position, at floor 
 level. 
 
 H. Body of child. 
 
 Three foot phalanges, one 
 metacarpal, part of scapula 
 and a portion of rib. 
 This side chamber had been 
 
 previously explored. 
 Single jaw. 
 O = Pottery. 
 
 1. Saucer shaped plate or disc, 
 bored. 
 Double concave vessel or 
 
 stand for urn. 
 Portions (reconstmctible) of 
 shallow vessel (7^ inches 
 in diameter). 
 Round bottomed urn (entire) 
 
 found inverted. 
 Shallow oval dish. 
 
 Scale 1 inch = 5ft. 
 
86 PREHISTORIC TLMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLuVNDS. 
 
 It was very evident from the undisturbed strata 
 about the structure that it had never been interfered 
 with by human agency, but the presence of sea-f^ravel 
 amongst the stones strongly supports the theory 
 advanced by Mr, Collenette, that it was reached by 
 the tide margin during the subsidence which followed 
 the great forest period. 
 
 This, and several other geological details, will 
 render good assistance when we come to consider the 
 chronology of our dolmens.* 
 
 Among other relics of the Robenhausian period are 
 some that show that, however far back this period 
 reaches, Neolithic man was still here in the bronze 
 age. 
 
 The hammer head shown in Plate XVIII is clearly 
 a reproduction in stone of a bronze original, and this 
 applies still more strikingly to some large picks found 
 in Guernsey, and now in the Lukis Museum. 
 
 Querns, and fragments of Querns — as are termed 
 large flat stones for grinding grain, with the surface 
 hollowed by use, — are fairly frequent amongst our 
 Neolithic relics. 
 
 Some large oval pebbles, with holes bored through 
 them, of which several have been found in Jersey, 
 are almost certainly milling stones for use with the 
 quern. (See plate XIX). 
 
 Such perforated pebbles are figured in various 
 works on Archaeology, and termed "hammer stones," 
 but a moment's study of them will show that they 
 could scarcely have been used as hammers. 
 
 * Photographs, and full details of this dolmen, are given in the 
 Journal of the Guernsey Society of Natural Science and local research 
 for 1913. 
 
THE LATER MIOLITHIC (rOBENHAUSIAN) PERIOD. 87 
 
 Those here figured are of coarse grained, loose- 
 textured granite, which would certainly shatter on 
 impact, even with timber, whilst if for use as battle 
 mauls, their weight and awkwardness would certainly 
 handicap the Avielder very considerably, and place 
 him at the mercy of a more lightly equipped 
 opponent. Then the holes bored through them 
 would be preposterously large for hafts. 
 
 The suggestion that these are milling stones has 
 not hitherto— to my knowledge — been advanced, but 
 this is my conviction, and I do not hesitate to assert 
 that such is the purpose for which they were 
 intended. 
 
 With one of these, and a quern, as shown in the 
 photograph, I have ground a quarter of a pound of 
 barley to very passable flour within five minutes. 
 The grain being placed in the hole of the milling 
 stone, assures that each portion will be exposed to 
 grinding action without being pushed about need- 
 lessly, as is the case when the same operation is 
 performed with the ordinary solid pebble or " Muller." 
 Thus they are the prototype of the modern perforated 
 upper millstone.''''" 
 
 Among other Neolithic relics found in the islands, 
 (in Jersey) is the massive axe shown in Plate XVIII. 
 This is of fine grained dolerite or basalt. Similar forms 
 have been found in Normandy, whilst in the Lukis 
 Museum in Guernsey are tv>-(> specimens of not only 
 the same shape and size, l)nt of the same stone, 
 
 * Since this was written, Cnpt. R3'bo!,. 7(Hh PnnjuLis, informs me 
 that he has seen similar stones thus employed among the hill tribes 
 of Northern India. 
 
88 PREniSTORIC TIMES AXD MEN OF THE CHANJTEL ISLANDS. 
 
 which were found in North America, near the 
 Hudson River. 
 
 Like requirements bring about like inventions, it 
 is true, but in this case the similarity between the 
 American and the local specimens seems too great to 
 be thus explained, and gives rise to the question, — 
 were the people of the two Continents in touch in 
 those far back times ? A question which must wait 
 for answer until we have more light on the migrations 
 of the Neolithic races. 
 
89 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE BRONZE AGE. 
 
 rriHIS is represented in all the islands, the relics 
 consisting of the familiar socketed axe-heads, 
 swords, spears, knives and daggers. 
 
 These relics are to some extent sporadic, hut the 
 principal finds have heen on the sites of foundries 
 where broken implements intended for the melting 
 pot occurred together with masses of surplus metal 
 which had l^een poured in saucer-shaped hollows in 
 the soil. Alderney appears to have furnished the 
 most of these relics, but Jersey and Guernsey have 
 furnished numerous examples. .• 
 
 The most important local relic of this period is a 
 gold torque. This was found in 1889 some three 
 feet below the surface of the sandy soil on the 
 Western side of St. Helier, in Jersey. 
 
 This beautiful relic, which is now in the Museum 
 of the Societe Jersiaise, is of pure gold. It is 56 
 inches in length and weighs 24 ounces Troy. (See 
 Plate XX). 
 
 By its length, and the liooks at each end, it seems 
 to have been worn sash-like from one shoulder to the 
 hip on the opposite side, for the suspension of a 
 sword or rapier. 
 
 This Torque is pronounced by experts to belong to 
 the middle of the bronze period, and to be most 
 probably of Irish origin.* 
 
 * See Monograph on Torques, by E. T. Nicolle. Societe Jersiaise. 
 
90 rREnisTouio times and men of the cilvnnel islands. 
 
 A furnace, about 4 feet in length, and 18 inches in 
 Avidtli and in depth, discovered by Mr. Collenette at 
 St. Saviour's, in Guernsey, and which it has been 
 suggested was either a crematorium or a pottery 
 kiln, very possibly belongs to the jbronze period. 
 It Avas carefully constructed, and lined with flat 
 rectangular bricks backed with clay. Numerous 
 masses of baked clay, roughly shaped by squeezing in 
 the hand and thus bearing linger prints, occurred in 
 and around the furnace. These may have been 
 for supporting potter.y during baking. 
 
 This interesting structure, standing on a cliff 
 which was being exploited for building, had to be 
 demolished, but a careful plan of it, and examples of 
 the lining bricks and clay supports, are in the Guille- 
 Alles Museum in Guernsey. It appears that this is 
 the second furnace of the kind discovered in 
 Guernsey, but of the first, no record — beyond the 
 preservation of some of the lining bricks — was made. 
 There is no record of any other structure of the kind 
 in the islands. 
 
 In 1903, during excavations for fortifications in 
 Alderney, three adult human skeletons were 
 unearthed. These may be either of this period or of 
 the Gallo-Roman. Around the neck of each was a 
 ring of bronze, the metal being circular in section 
 and six millimetic^s thick. These rings bear no sign 
 of a joint, but appear to have been either hammered 
 out to their form or so wehh^d as to leave no mark. 
 A remarkable fe;itui-o is that these rings, or collars, 
 cannot be passed over the skull, and so must have 
 been w^orn continuously from the time of infancy, 
 
TIIE BRONZE AGE. 91 
 
 which suggests that they were badges of servitude 
 rather than personal ornament. 
 
 The whole of these relics, which are well preserved, 
 are now in the Guille-AUes Museum. 
 
 Of the subsequent periods, Early Iron, etc., the 
 islands have but meagre record. A few urns and 
 fragments of j^ottery and various coins in the local 
 museums, being the only relics yet discovered. 
 
— 92 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE CHRONOLOGY OF LOCAL PREHISTORIC 
 
 EELICS. 
 
 rnO the ever-recurriijg question: "How long is it 
 since the people who have bequeathed to us 
 these i-elics lived?" no answer, intelligible to the 
 ordinary mind, has, it seems to me. yet been 
 given. Witli regard to the very early races of man, 
 men of science, with few exceptions, have followed a 
 policy of non-committal, whilst, with regard to the 
 later ones, too much stress has been placed upon the 
 relics themselves and not sufficient attention given to 
 the evidences of the geological changes that have 
 taken place since the relics were deposited. Thus, 
 an urn of a certain pattern is found in a dolmen, 
 whilst one of similar pattern is said to have been 
 found associated with some bronze implements. 
 Then the conclusion has been that the dolmen must 
 date from the bronze period. 
 
 How utterly unreliable is this line of argument I 
 think I shall be able to show from actual fact a little 
 further on. 
 
 Let us commence with the dolmen period, and 
 work backwards into time. 
 
 The age of the dolmens especially, has been a 
 subject of enquiry ever since interest in Archaeology 
 began, and very varied have been the replies to the 
 query : How old are they ? 
 
 Gradually and timorously their era has been placed 
 back and back until as much as 8,000 or 9,000 years 
 
THE CHRONOLOGY OF LOCAL rREHISTORIC RELICS. 93 
 
 has l)een ventured, but it seems to me from local 
 geological evidences that these figures could be 
 doubled or trebled with safety. 
 
 It has been urged that in one of them, the " du 
 Tus " dolmen in Guernsey, articles of bronze were 
 found ; also, that in several of them there are evidences 
 of cremation, — cremation being a practice which was 
 common in the bronze period. 
 
 Unfortunately it has not been placed on record 
 whether the bronze relics of the " du Tus " dolmen 
 were found in association with an interment or simply 
 within the precincts of the dolmen. In the latter 
 case they afford no evidence of the age of the dolmen, 
 for it is possible to find relics of quite recent years 
 within the surface soil in such dolmens as may have 
 been disturbed. In fact, a coin of Henry III. was 
 found by the Societe Jersiaise during the exploration 
 of a dolmen at "La Hougue," in Jersey, at a depth of 
 four feet fron: the surface ! It is, however, certain 
 that there is no instance of bronze in any other of the 
 local dolmens.'* 
 
 Several local dolmens are hoAvever so situated that 
 geology affords us some assistance in arriving at an 
 api)roximation of their date; for instance, the dolmen 
 of Mont Grantez, as I have just said, stands on a hill 
 200 feet above sea level and about half a mile from 
 the shore line. It is on an area which is covered 
 with sand to a depth of two or three feet and which 
 rises into dunes four or five feet higher. This sand 
 has not been deposited within recent centuries — the 
 
 •» Bulletia of the Societe Jersiaise. for 1882, p. 324. 
 
94 rREnisTORic times and men of the cilvnnel islands. 
 
 sand from the present sliore does not reach this spot, 
 nor cover the arable land at the foot of the hill. 
 ]\Ioreover, fragments of Gallo-Rornan pottery occur, 
 not beneath, but tvithin, the sand layers, indicating 
 that sand was present on that spot in Gallo-Roraan 
 times. The sand was therefore derived from a shore 
 which now forms the flat grass-covered low-lying 
 area at the foot of the hills at the end of the period of 
 land subsidence which followed the forest epoch, and 
 when the land stood some 25 feet lower than it does 
 at present.-^- 
 
 That the dolmen was erected at a time prior to the 
 deposition of sand is further shown by the fact that 
 it stands directly on the firm yellow clay which 
 overlies the rock of the district. It then follows that 
 it was erected prior to — at the least the termination of 
 — the period of subsidence which directly followed the 
 forest epoch, and in all probability about the same 
 time as the submerged dolmens and menhirs that 
 stand on the peaty bed of the old forest beyond the 
 shore line. 
 
 Let us now turn to the I'lslet dolmen in Guernsey. 
 This stands upon that thin layer of black vegetable 
 soil which, — beneath the sand layers and dunes of all 
 our low shores, — can be traced as an inland extension 
 of tlie great submerged forest bed without. No sand 
 had reached its site when it was erected, so that, this 
 being a low flat shore, the sea must have been distant. 
 
 Ill the dolmen was found an urn of rather remark- 
 able form, one with handles on two sides and 
 
 * There are abundant small pebbles mingled with the sand, which 
 could not have been carried by the wind from the present coast line. 
 
THE CHRONOLOOY OF LOCAL PREHISTORIC RELICS. 95 
 
 projecting bosses or studs between them. This form, 
 although it is said it persisted into the age of bronze, 
 goes far back into Neolithic times, for I have portions 
 of no less than three which were obtained by myself 
 and fellow workers from deep among the roots of oak 
 and hazel in the submerged forest bed. This, 
 coupled with the fact that the shore was so far away 
 that sand could not reach its site, implies that the 
 ITslet dolmen was erected in the forest period. 
 Further, within the peaty soil of the submerged forest, 
 the pottery fragments, stone axes and mullers that 
 we find so plentifnlly, are identical with those we 
 find in the dolmens. 
 
 Accompanying the burials in the dolmens, we find 
 among the relics of food offerings — the bone« and 
 teeth of horse, ox and goat, — plentiful remains of 
 the red deer, an animal which, with a dense population, 
 could not have existed on small insular areas, but 
 which suggests extensive hunting grounds.* 
 
 Such vegetation as forms the forest bed around our 
 coasts — oak trees which measure as much as four, 
 and even five feet in diameter, hazel and alder, 
 could not grow on a flat shore in proximity to the 
 sea, for salt spray would kill off their foliage and 
 salt water would infiltrate to their roots. We have 
 
 * The presence of limpef, shells wiih some of the intermenis, 
 indicatmrr proNimiiy of sea, does not nfgalive this evidence, but onlj' 
 shows that the dolmens were still iu use vv'hen land subsidence had 
 so far proceeded as to render sea accessiiile at c.rt.iin ]ioin's. A 
 study of the ordname chart will show that tho sea (\uld have been 
 within half a ii.ile of (>rosuez Point, while land stdi stretched five 
 miles westward of St Ouen's Bay, and Jersey was in one with Fiance, 
 — joined not only on the East, but on tin' South. Also that it reachi-d 
 within half a mile of Hanois whilst (Juerute^- was joined to Jersey, 
 and constqueutly Continental. 
 
9G PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 present day evidence of tliis fact in St. On en's Bay 
 where, even a mile from the sea, the few trees that 
 are present are gnarled and stunted, leaning 
 landwards and stretching their few branches away 
 from the unwelcome salt-laden wind, so that it was 
 not possible for the grand oaks to have been living 
 whilst the sea was less than five miles away.* This 
 means that even in that portion of the forest period, 
 the land must have stood at least 100 feet higher 
 than it does at present. 
 
 We now have evidence of subsidence until the sea 
 reached a level 25 feet higher than it does at present 
 — a subsidence of 125 feet ; and marine deposits 
 cover the coast portions of the forest bed. 
 
 Land elevation then sets in, and the forest bed, for 
 a long distance around the shore —with marine sand 
 and clay upon it — becomes dry land and is clothed 
 with vegetation. This vegetation is that which now 
 forms our upper peat bed. The elevation was not 
 very great, but observation on various data shows 
 that it was one of about 80 feet. 
 
 This was followed by the subsidence which is now 
 proceeding, to the extent of GO feet. So that since 
 what we may well consider the end of the forest 
 period, to the present day, tlie land has undergone 
 vertical movements to tlie extent of at least 265 feet. 
 
 De Chevrement gives the result of some elaborate 
 observations and calculations as to the rate of rise 
 
 * At varioii8 rarts of our coast, eg, Moulin Huet, in Guernsey, 
 Pelcroute and La .Snie in .Teisey, trees <^row near tli>' sea, Ijut 
 this occurs only in sheltered and elev.ited reces^^es, and tin'y are liy 
 no nie.ms trees of forest type, hit are stunted, ^ijnari'-d and twisted, 
 just partially successfid stiugglers against adverse conditions. 
 
THE CHROXOLOGY OF LOCAL PREHISTORIC RELICS. 97 
 
 and fall of land in these areas for the last 3,000 years, 
 a rate which, whilst varying somewhat from century 
 to century, gives an average of a little less than 18 
 inclies per century, and which is a fair estimate on 
 •which to count for rates of rise and fall in general.* 
 
 Accepting this estimate, then we find that a period 
 of over 17,000 years is required to account for the 
 land oscillations that have occurred since the last 
 generations of forest trees were growing, and yet we 
 find relics of the same type as those of the dolmens, 
 beneath the roots of those forest trees ; and dolmens 
 and menhirs themselves amidst the rooted stumps 
 and prostrate trunks. So that this figure — 17,000 
 years — may be taken as a minimum for the age of 
 the majority of those structures in these islands, but 
 by no means as their average age. 
 
 This has reference but to the later or " Roben- 
 hausian " races. The relics of an earlier Neolithic 
 people lie, not in, but beneath, the forest bed, and the 
 remains of generation after generation of forest trees 
 lie upon these relics. 
 
 To arrive at an approximation of the era of the 
 early Neolithic people, we should have to ascertain 
 the time which it took to accumulate the eight to 
 fourteen feet thick of the compressed soil which 
 results from decayed trees, and add this figure to that 
 already given, and this would refer simply to one 
 particular deposit of relics, and not to the time when 
 the I'ace of people whose relics they are, arrived upon 
 
 * Les Mouvements rhi Sol fir les Cotes Occidentales de la France 
 et fmrtout ■ dayjs le Golf Normanno Breton, par Alexandre de 
 Checrement. — Paris, 188'J. 
 
98 rREniSTORlC TIJIES and men of the CHiVNNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 the scene. These were most likely the people who 
 mingled with the Magdalenians — the last cave- 
 dwellers of North-westei'n Europe. 
 
 De Mortillet's estimate for that time is approxi- 
 mately 18,000 years, but this figure should probably 
 be increased very considerably. 
 
 Of the Magdalenian, Solutrian and Aurignacian 
 races, as I have already said, the islands furnish no 
 trace, so when we get back to the last of their 
 Paleolithic inhabitants, the Mousterians, we at once 
 launch into less modest figures. 
 
 The sequence of rise aiid fall of land during this 
 interval is not so clearly marked as in more recent 
 times, and so does not assist us. All we can infer is, 
 that just prior to the advent of the earliest Neolithic 
 people, these areas were insular, and that, when we 
 get back to Mousterian times, they must have been 
 Continental. So for the era of these remote races, 
 we must fall back upon data established in neigh- 
 bouring lands. 
 
 The Mousterians were here when glacial conditions 
 last set in in these latitudes, as is witnessed by the 
 boulder clay which lies upon their abundant relics. 
 
 According to the astronomical theory (see the 
 conclusions of Prof. James Geikie, Sir Robert Ball, 
 and others), this was between 200,000 and 300,000 
 years ago ; whih:,t, according to de Llortillet and 
 others, who (picstion the a-^tronomical origin of 
 glacial episodes and rely upon geological evidences, 
 it was from l;'0,();)i) to 2(Kj,0l)0 years ago. 
 
 Taking the lowest of these estimates, which is a 
 very modest one, we can then saEely assume that 
 
THE CHRONOLOGY OF LOCAL PREHISTORIC RELICS. 99 
 
 150,000 years have elapsed since the final occupation 
 of our cave-dwellings. 
 
 To get back to the Acheulian period, and its 
 immediate predecessor, the Chellean, both represented 
 locally, it is necessary to add at least another 100,000 
 years. 
 
 Finally, those implements Ave find beneath the 
 lower boulder clay and mingled with the pebbles 
 of the early Pleistocene — if not Pliocene — 
 raised beach, must belong to the race of men of 
 whicli the Heidelberg jaw is a relic. Of this relic 
 Dr. Keith says that the geological deposits above it 
 represent a lapse of time of not less than 700,000 
 years and that many geologists would be in favour of 
 a much larger claim. 
 
 From the various estimates of the era of early man 
 in Europe, I quote examples showing how — as fresh 
 evidence accumulates — the tendency is to increase 
 the figures. 
 
 G. DE MORTILLET (1889). 
 
 From man's first appearance on the scene (in 
 Europe), 230,000 to 240,000 years, of which the- 
 
 Chellean period occupied 78,000 
 
 Mousterian period occupied 100,000 
 
 Solutrian period occupied 11,000 
 
 Magdalenian period occupied 33,000 
 
 Neolithic and all subsequent periods say 18,000 
 
 Professor Sturge (1911). 
 
 " The Neolithic period goes back to between 
 200,000 and .300,000 years. 
 
 The Cave-dwelling period lasted from 200,000 to 
 400,000 years. 
 
100 PUEaiSTOUlC TIMES AND MEN OE TUE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 The Drift period (Clielleau, &c.), 700,000 to 
 1,000,000 years." 
 
 Tliis would give for the total human period (in 
 Europe), from 1,100,000 to 1,700,000 years. 
 
 Du. Keith (1911). 
 
 Writing of the Neanderthal (Mousterian) race only, 
 Dr. Keith, says : — 
 
 " Thus we have evidence that at a distant time, 
 dating from almost the beginning to almost the end 
 of the Glacial period — a period variously estimated at 
 from half to one and a half millions of years —Europe 
 was occupied from the centre of Germany in the 
 North to the Pyrenees in the South, from Jersey in 
 the West to Croatia in the East, by a t3'pe of mankind 
 quite unlike modern races. As yet we have only 
 obtained a few glimpses of the men of this vast 
 period. They appear suddenly and they seem to 
 disappear without leaving a trace.'* 
 
 ■■•■■ Ancient types of man, by Arthur Keith, M.D., L.L.D. 
 
» » » » 1 
 
 — 101 — 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THESE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE 
 IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 
 
 TF not altogether satisfactory, it is at least interest- 
 -^ ing to reconstruct, as it were, to tlie imagination, 
 the scenes that met the vision of those races that lived 
 here in the far past, and from their environment and 
 the relics they have bequeathed to us, picture their 
 ways of life. 
 
 The Channel Islands, composed as they are of 
 materials which best resist erosion and denudation, 
 and without evidences of any rivers which might 
 have cut their soils and altered their contours, retain 
 in fair degree the geological features they must have 
 presented during the whole of the human period. 
 
 Sea erosion has, of course, to some extent scarped 
 their shore lines, whilst denudation through atmos- 
 pheric agencies, and the slip from higher to lower 
 levels of rubble drift during glacial times, have to 
 some extent reduced their elevations. But it is only 
 in detail that things have thus altered, the general 
 plan remains. 
 
 For many miles around, the sounding line enables 
 us to trace the undulations of the surrounding plains 
 which, now beneath the sea, have again and again 
 been land surface, whilst faunal and floral relics 
 enable us to ascertain their varied climatic conditions 
 
 The courses of the ijrincii^al ancient livers are still 
 
102 rUEHISTORIC TIMKS AND ilEN OF THE CIIAN]ST;L ISLANDS. 
 
 clearly defined, and hill and dale to a considerable 
 extent, are well marked.* 
 
 Twenty miles North of Guernsey, we see in " Hard 
 Deep " the bed of a great river, an extension of the 
 combined Seine and Somme, and we trace it past the 
 North of Alderney and Cape la Hague. 
 
 Between Jersey and the rocky reefs that lie to its 
 North,— the Ecrehous, Dirouilles and Paternosters, — 
 the line of deeper soundings defines the course of a 
 lesser stream— an extension of the Aye which now 
 meets the sea at St. Germain-sur-Aye, and which had 
 for tributaries the streams from Surville and Portbail. 
 This river flowed past the South of Guernsey and 
 probably joined the " Seine-Somme " near its estuary. 
 
 Between the Southern side of Jersey and the 
 elevated area now represented by the extensive 
 Minqniers reef, flowed the Sienne, which now reaches 
 the sea at Blainville, whilst to the South of the 
 Minquiers area, the Ranee, with a number of tribu- 
 taries from more Eastern Brittany, flowed in a North- 
 westerly direction. 
 
 From this great plain rose the rocky eminences 
 which now form our islands and their numerous 
 surrounding islets, and there is evidence that, at 
 least in interglacial and in post-glacial times, the 
 whole of this great area was densely Avooded. 
 
 At a period prior to the deposition of our lower 
 boulder clay, there is evidence of a great subsidence, 
 and these islands w-ere then of considerably less area 
 than they are at present. This is well marked in all 
 
 ■•-■ See note on submerged valleys iu addenda. 
 
THESE ISLAM^S AND THEIR TEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 103 
 
 tlie islands, and especially in Guernsey, by the 25ft. 
 raised beach which just underlies the lower boulder 
 clay.* 
 
 That man— whether fully qualified for his title or 
 not— had lived here prior to that period of subsidence, 
 is shown by the implements that occur amongst the 
 pebbles and gravel of the raised beach just named. 
 
 Of this race we know little, probably it is repre- 
 sented by the Heidelberg jaw, perhaps by the Java 
 remains, and comes under the still — in some degree 
 disputed — " Eolithic period." 
 
 Before we again find human evidences, there must 
 have been considerable land elevation, and the race 
 next upon the scene must have hcen the early 
 Chellean, the men who made the massive and crudely 
 chipped implements shown in Plate II. This race must 
 have been strongly represented, for its relics, in the 
 way of crude flints, are plentiful. We meet with 
 them in St. Ouen's Bay, at Greve d'Azette, in St. 
 Clement's Bay, and on the North coast of Jersey. 
 They occur beneath the boulder clays of Green Island, 
 and in the clays of Guernsey. 
 
 In those days the climate of these regions must 
 have been warm, as we have already seen, and the 
 rose-laurel, the magnolia, and to some extent the 
 palm, throve wtll As I have already said, owing to 
 the decalcifying nature of our local cinys — or rather 
 to the absence from our soils of agents which would 
 neutralize tl;o decalcifying action of the carbonic acid 
 brought down by rain — we find, at tlii^ horizon, no 
 animal remains in association witli these human 
 
 * See Plate I. 
 
10 i PRKnrsTo ;nc times and men of the channel isl\nds, 
 
 relics, but from localities where conditions are more 
 conducive to bone preservation — on the Continent 
 and in England — we see that the men of that time 
 had for their congeners a warmth-requiring fauna. 
 They had the hippopotamus, Elrpha.n meriodinalifi, 
 Elephas antiqinn^, the sabre-toothed tiger, two species 
 of rhinoceros, the lion and bear, a species of horse 
 (Eqnua steiionis), and many species of bovids and of 
 deer.*' 
 
 We next encounter the evidences of a glacial 
 episode. Fragments of rock, detached by frost, and 
 masses of clay washed down by the floods of melting 
 snows, pour into the valleys and fringe what are now 
 our coast lines, forming our local lower boulder clay. 
 
 Then as these glacial conditions pass away we find 
 evidences of another race of men— the Acheulian. 
 The transition from the one to the other is not clearly 
 defined, either here or elsewhere, but at the horizon 
 at which, in Jersey at least, we find the Chellean 
 relics — that is, just beneath the boulder clay which 
 marks the glacial episode just mentioned — no 
 Acheulian relics have so far been traced. In fact the 
 only local relics clearly referable to the Acheulian 
 period are found on moorland, and on the shore line 
 where there has been erosion of land, so that their 
 actual geological horizon cannot be traced. 
 
 llow long this period lasted — the period which 
 covers the presence of the "drift men," as the 
 Chellean and Acheulian together are termed — is a 
 point on which there is vast difference of opinion. 
 
 * See " Faune Chelliienne," in de Mortillet's Prchistoire, pp. 558,559. 
 
THESE ISMNDS AND THEIU TEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 105 
 
 De Mortillet estimates it at 78,000 years, whilst 
 Professor Sturi^e claims for it at least 700,000 years. 
 
 As to tlie physical aspect of these drift men, if — as 
 there seems good evidence to prove — the Galley Hill, 
 Ipswich and Piltdown remains are representative of 
 them, they differed but little from modern man, 
 except perhaps in a simian character of the jaw. 
 They were o£ fair stature, with large brain capacity 
 and quite unlike the men who next appear upon the 
 scene — the " Mousterians." 
 
 The conditions under which we find the relics of 
 these people afford no clue as to their probable ways 
 of life ; all that we can infer is that they were hunters 
 and lived in the open. 
 
 However unsatisfactory is the evidence we can 
 gather of these very early occupants of these lands, 
 our horizon clears considerably when we arrive at the 
 Mousterian period. 
 
 As once more genial conditions were passing away 
 and the ice-sheet again began to spread down from 
 the North, the Acheulians disapi^eared from the 
 scene, no doubt moving South, and were replaced by 
 the well-known and well-studied men of the Neander- 
 thal type. 
 
 Whence came those strange and more primitive 
 men lias not been shown, but it seems likely that 
 they were a people from the North, hunters of the 
 reindeer and the mammoth, and that, as advancing 
 Arctic conditions forced the reindeer and the 
 mammoth from their more Northern Homes, these 
 men followed them hither. 
 
106 rREHlSTORIC TLMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 Dr. Keith saj'^s of Mousterian man : "He appears 
 for a time and then gives place to modern man." 
 
 Some anthropologists consider that this type of 
 humanity is distinct, and does not form part of the 
 evolutionary stem which culminates in modern man, 
 but this is a point for anthropologists to decide and 
 does not concern us here. 
 
 Of all the early races, the Mousterian is that which 
 is most fully represented in these islands. Of this 
 race were the men who occupied la Cotte a la ('lievre 
 at St. Ouen, and la Cotte at St. Brelade, and wdiose 
 well-defined flint implements are plentiful, not only in 
 the caves but just beneath the upper boulder clay 
 and to some extent scattered over the moorlands. 
 
 The many discoveries of skulls, and even of 
 complete skeletons of these men, have enabled 
 anthropologists to decide with considerable degree of 
 precision what they were like, and the description 
 given by Professor Huxley many years ago, although 
 he had but little material at his command, holds 
 good. 
 
 This authority says : " Tliey were short in stature 
 and powerfully built, their low, depressed skulls had 
 curiously projecting brow-ridges, and their jaws, of 
 brutal strength and ferocity, sloped downwards and 
 backwards, without that characteristic of all modern 
 men — the chin prominence; whilst their thigh bones, 
 by their form, suggest that they must have walked 
 with a bend at the knee." 
 
 Another of the pioneers of science, de Quatrefages, 
 after describing them in much the same words, adds : 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE IK PREHISTOIUC TIMES. 107 
 
 " Strangely savage must liave been tlie aspect of 
 these men." 
 
 When we stand beside the hearths in the cave- 
 dwellings of these people, survey the relics of their 
 feasts, take up and examine those flint implements 
 that they had been the last to handle, and consider 
 the environment of their day, we can in some measure 
 picture their ways of life. 
 
 When they lived here the land probably extended 
 to where the 100 fathom line marks the limit,* and 
 the plain, 140 feet below, was clothed with forest in 
 which no doubt the pine then predominated. 
 
 Visible from the higher levels, over the tree tops, 
 and fi'om fifteen to twenty miles away, was rising 
 land, the now sister islands of Guernsey and Sark, 
 and a river — the greater Aye — flowed from east to 
 west, at no great distance from the foot of the clifE in 
 which was their cave-dwelling at St. Ouen. 
 
 The river broadened here and there, to form 
 shallow lakes, one of which is still well defined on 
 the Eastern side of Jersey. 
 
 The mammoth and the woolly rhinoceros, two 
 species of wild horse, and the great Irish elk were 
 there, as well as herds of the primitive ox or urus, and 
 of reindeer, so that Mousterian man had no lack of food. 
 Nor was he altogether a carnivore, the ground-down 
 surfaces of his powerful teeth indicate that he 
 consumed coarse vegetable food that required much 
 mastication, and flat stones, with accompanying worn 
 pebbles, show that he pounded or triturated grain or 
 
 * See Geikie's map of Europe at close of Great Ice Age. 
 
108 PREniSTORlC TliMES AND WEN OF TIIE CHANNEL ISL.\NDS. 
 
 seed of some kind. Flints, so trimmed as to sliow 
 clearly that tliey were used as scrapers, and others so 
 pointed as to represent borers, indicate that he knew 
 the art of dressing and joining skins, and so had 
 clothing. 
 
 The question has often arisen " Was he a 
 cannibal?" On this point we have but circumstan- 
 tial evidence, but what we have is not in his favour. 
 
 In the " Cotte " cave at St. Brelade, the human 
 teeth — all that was left of what must have been a 
 skull— were found, not in the position in which their 
 owner may have died or had been reverently laid, 
 but against the wall rock of the cave, behind the 
 hearth, and mingled with broken bones of ox and 
 reindeer. Again, at Croatia, human bones — some 
 split to obtain their marrow, and others showing 
 evidence of roasting — lend strong support to the 
 assumption that he was not particular as to where he 
 drew the line in his menu. 
 
 He was not a model of hygiene, and his combined 
 home and workshop — judging by the fact that the 
 floor was chiefly composed of animal remains — must 
 have been unsavoury in the extreme. 
 
 His was certainly the "simple life," but it must 
 have been a precarious one, for the wild animals 
 that roamed the land were not all of the jDeaceful 
 nature of those named. A huge tawny lion, a bear 
 of double the proportions of its modern representative, 
 the leopard, and wolves in great number were among 
 them, so that our Mousterian man must have been 
 the hunted as frequently as the hunter. 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 109 
 
 As glacial conditions intensified and the winters 
 were long and severe, his lot must have been 
 especially hard. The rivers were frozen over the 
 greater part of the year. Snow capped the higher 
 lands continuously, and its summer meltings must 
 often have flooded his home. In the " Cotte " of St. 
 Brelade, we see that such floods washed clay and 
 large boulders on to his floor and over his hearth, 
 and that — favte de mieux — he resumed occupation 
 on the top of these, whilst at all times moisture 
 dropped from the roof and trickled down the walls. 
 
 Among his relics we find no evidence of arms of 
 propulsion — no arrow tips, — as among the relics of 
 his still far off successor. Neolithic man. It would 
 seem that bow and arrow was a complication beyond 
 his inventive capacity, whilst experts hold that his 
 pointed flints were never hafted. His method of 
 obtaining meat supplies must therefore have been 
 the trap or pitfall, for we cannot imagine him 
 attacking wild animals, even the ox, armed simply 
 with club, stake, or hand-held flint. 
 
 His larder was however well supplied, for remains 
 of reindeer, horse, ox, red deer and goat plentifully 
 strew his floor. Even head and leg of rhinoceros 
 figure amongst his leavings. 
 
 He took some measure of thought for the morrow, 
 and we find at "la Cotte" remains of wood, including 
 large boughs, stacked near the hearth. 
 
 The cave was his home and his castle. It afforded 
 him shelter from storm and blizzard, and at night, 
 with a fire on the outside, security from att.ick by 
 
110 PREniSTORIC TIMES AM) MEN OF TIIE CmVNNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 wild animals, for in tbe invention of fire lie had 
 invoked a guardian angel for when he slept. 
 
 Was he a monogamist, or did he incur plural 
 responsibility ? 
 
 Polygamy is not suited to the wild, where life is 
 held on slender tenure, as it must have been in his 
 case, so that the probability is tliat, like his not very 
 distant relatives, the great anthropoid apes, he was 
 monogamous. 
 
 To what extent Mousterian man was represented 
 locally is difficult to decide. There are here — so far 
 as yet discovered — but two caves that have not been 
 invaded by the sea since his era, and both of these 
 liave abundance of his relics. But sixty feet lower 
 down the cliffs, all along the Northern and South- 
 western coasts of Jersey, on the Southern side of 
 Guernsey, and on the Western one of Sark, are 
 numerous other caves, the great majority of which 
 are far more extensive (see addenda), and offer better 
 shelter than the two in which we find his relics, so 
 that it is more than probable that they also were 
 occupied. But twice since his era the sea has invaded 
 these caves of lower level, and whatever relics they 
 may have contained have long since been scattered. 
 
 As the ice sheet still spread down from the North, 
 these regions apparently became unsuited even for 
 that beast of snow^ and frost, the reindeer, so that it 
 migrated, as far to the south as Spain, and no doubt 
 Mousterian man followed it, for here we lose all trace 
 of him. His cave-dwellings are deserted, and in the 
 one of St. Brelade glacial drift enters through the 
 doorway and the cleft in the roof and covers his 
 
THESE ISL.VXDS AND TIIETR PEOrLE IN PREHISTOEIC TIMES. Ill 
 
 hearths and his relics with thirty feet of clay and 
 boulders. 
 
 How long, in these regions, the Mousterian race 
 endured is a matter on which there is mnch divergence 
 of opinion, but it certainly was a very long period, 
 De Mortillet claims 100,000 years, but some authorities 
 are for greatly extending this estimate. Dr. Keith 
 for instance, is inclined to multiply it by ten. 
 
 After the exodus of this race, and coincident with 
 the deposition of the glacial rubble drift, we have in 
 these islands evidence of a considerable land 
 subsidence ; rubble drift and marine clays, sands and 
 gravels, intermingle at what was then the shore line, 
 this shore line being clearly defined beneath the low- 
 lying portions of St. Helier, and we get a repetition of 
 the geological features that had presented themselves 
 in early Pleistocene times, these areas being not only 
 insular, but of much less dimensions than at present. 
 
 When glacial conditions again passed away, new 
 races of men occupied the greater part of Europe, 
 these, in succession, being the Aurignacean, Solutrian 
 and Magdalenian, but as I have already said, no 
 trace of them appears locally. Little Islands such as 
 these had then become, offered those people no means 
 of sustenance, so that here we p;et a great gap in 
 human succession, and from the crude Mousterian 
 savage we pass to Neolithic man. 
 
 We now have evidences of land elevation ; Ouernsey 
 is still insular, but Jersey is probably a peninsula. 
 
 It is the dawn of the age of great forests, and the 
 maritime plants which at first fringed the emerging 
 
112 rREHISTORIC TIMES A^^D MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 land are gradually replaced by bircli, beech, oak and 
 hazel. 
 
 Once again man is on the scene — early Neolithic 
 man. We find his chipped flints, utilized pebbles, 
 and the blocks of stone which he has used as anvils 
 for the preliminary shaping of his flint implements. 
 They lie near the surface of the marine deposits of 
 the period of submergence, and beneath the first 
 vestiges of forest growth. 
 
 As their generations pass on, and as they are joined 
 by fresh arrivals, Ave trace these people by their relics 
 at various levels in the forest bed, and presently find 
 that they had acquired the potter's art, making crude 
 vessels from the blue plastic clay which underlies the 
 forest bed. As their numbers increase, we find their 
 places of sepulture. No doubt it was for the more 
 important persons that tombs were constructed. The 
 body was lain upon the soil, either extended or 
 doubled up, stones were placed around, and the 
 flattest stones available were used as a covering. 
 
 Whether earth was heaped over these rough tombs 
 we cannot ascertain, for those we have available are 
 buried beneath Aeolian clay and sand. Such are the 
 tombs we find, close set, at Green Island in Jersey, 
 and such have been found in Guernsey. 
 
 The mound, or cairn of small stones at Green 
 Island shows however that such careful burial was 
 not the portion of all. The majority were apparently 
 just placed on the ground and stones heaped upon 
 them — a rough and ready means of disposal, — the 
 mound increasing in extent as additions were made. 
 
TIIESE ISLANDS AND TIIEIR PEOPLE IN PREEISTOKIC TIMES. 113 
 
 Unlike the burials of the succeeding race, these 
 bear no evidence of any solicitude for the welfare of 
 ■ the dead. No marks of venerable tribute accompany 
 the interments. No ornaments, amulets or weapons, 
 no red deer's haunch or horse's head, loin of pork or 
 jar of limpets, to cheer and support the deceased on 
 his long journey to the spirit world— so constant 
 with later burials — occur with these. 
 
 Perhaps the concept of a life beyond the tomb had 
 not yet been framed. 
 
 It is true that the orientation — East and West — of 
 the majority of the tombs suggests some idea of 
 veneration, and j^et whilst the tombs are thus 
 oriented, it seems that little attention was paid to the 
 position of the body. In the Green Island tombs, 
 one body at least was placed with the head to the 
 East, others with head to the West, whilst one tomb 
 had served for two bodies, or at least for one and a 
 half, for although two skulls and two sets of arm 
 bones were present, it is diincult to see how two 
 entire bodies could have been accommodated within 
 that narrow home. 
 
 Remains of horse— teeth and bones— so abundant 
 with all the relics of the succeeding race, do not 
 appear at this horizon. It would seem that the 
 indigenous— and, of course, wild — horse, so abundant 
 in Paleolithic times, had passed away, and that the 
 introduction of domesticated stock had not com- 
 menced. 
 
 These early Neolithic people were of small stature, 
 and of slender build. Dr. Keith, after careful study 
 of remains from Green Island, estimates the stature 
 
114 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 of an adult woman represented tliere, as under five 
 feet, and the other skulls and bones from that locality- 
 are certainly considerably smaller than those of the 
 modern European, whilst shapely brows and sound 
 and even teeth suggest that they were not an 
 uncomely people. 
 
 Centuries pass, and we get fresh arrivals from the 
 East,— a round headed people, and one possessed of 
 a higher culture than the Inst. 
 
 These are the Robenhausians. They mingle with 
 the Tardenoisiens and now we get diversity of type. 
 
 When the curtain rises on Robenhausian times, we 
 can well picture the aspect of these lands. A vast 
 forest has spread far over the erstwhile sea-bottom 
 and not only joined the islands to the Continent, but 
 in all probability established a land connection with 
 Great Britain.* 
 
 The old rivers, the Seine, the Aye, the Sienne, and 
 the Ranee, run their accustomed course ; no longer 
 amid snow and ice, but through rich pastures and 
 deep forest. It is a goodly land and the population 
 increases greatly. Herds of long-faced oxen roam 
 forest and plain and wallow in the streams. The red 
 deer and the wild-boar abound. The hazel and the 
 crab-apple, the strawberry and blackberry, the cherry, 
 the medlar and the wild plum, are there in profusion, 
 so that Robenhausian man is provided, not only with 
 the necessaries, but with many of the luxuries, of life. 
 
 When, on such occasions as the tide lays bare the 
 submerged forest remains on the North coast of 
 Jersey, we stand amid the tree stumps at the foot of 
 
 *■ See Addenda. 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND TIIEIU PEOPLE IN PKEHISTOL'IC TIMES. 115 
 
 the cliffs, we can without much call upon the 
 imagination, picture the scene in those Neolithic 
 days. 
 
 The trees — the oaks especially— were of great size, 
 and the undergrowth of hazel abundant. The cliffs 
 were tunnelled with caves — over one hundred on this 
 part of the coast alone. Some of these caves were 
 mere rocky grottoes, but many were spacious 
 chambers, entering the cliff for hundreds of feet. 
 These offered cool retreats in the summer heat, and 
 shelter in days of storm. Bracken draped the slopes, 
 and amid the red granite crags towering to three 
 hundred feet above, the furze, the heather and the 
 ling blossomed in profusion. Elegant witnesses of 
 the fact that these cliffs (now assailed by the waves) 
 were once slieltered by woods, are still living there, 
 — the wood-sorrel, the wood-sage, the foxglove, the 
 spurge-laurel, the cowslip and the bluebell, — for these 
 are woodland and not maritime plants. 
 
 It was amid scenes like these that the lapidary, 
 who was the armourer and cutler of those times, 
 fashioned his axes from the diorite rock of the vicinity, 
 and his arrow-tips from the flints that were to be 
 found in the marine clay beneath the forest soil. 
 There the potter moulded the plastic clay, and the 
 jeweller made tinkling ornaments from shells and 
 teeth and fancy stone, to adorn the necks and arms of 
 the wealthy. 
 
 The potters, it seems, were of the gentler sex, for 
 the nail and finger prints on the recording clay are 
 too delicate to be those of masculine digits. 
 
116 PREIIISTOKIC TUIES AED MEX OF THE CILVKXEL ISLANDS. 
 
 Masses of blackberry pips bearing evidence of 
 having been squeezed to obtain the juice of the fruit, 
 are found among the food relics, and suggest that 
 man had thus early recognised the seductive proper- 
 ties of fermented fruit juices. 
 
 Thus, with a generous climate, and with nature 
 bestowing her gifts with a lavish hand, we should 
 imagine that the life of Neolithic man was a happy 
 one — a perpetual holiday. But when we look deeper 
 into the environment of the people the charm fades, 
 and we read a different story. 
 
 Those massive monuments, so abundant on every 
 side, and entailing the transport of blocks of many 
 tons in weight, often from great distances and fi-om 
 the plains to the hill tops, for the honour of the Sun 
 God and for the sepulture of the great, and for no 
 other earthly purpose whatever, could not have been 
 a work of necessity nor a labour of love. They tell — 
 as do the pyramids of Egypt — of forced labour. The 
 government was most likely in the hands of a sacer- 
 dotal caste and the pjriest held sway, so that the yoke 
 of servitude must have galled the neck of the many. 
 There is good evidence that religion, as de Mortillet 
 says, was exploited as a powerful means of domi- 
 nation. 
 
 As to the religion of these people, it seems clearly 
 shown by the orientation of the dolmens, and align- 
 ments, as well as by mystic signs on some of the stones 
 in Brittany, that it was sun-worship. The belief in 
 life after death is shown by the articles placed beside 
 the dead— weapons, ornaments and food. Not only 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND TIIEIR PEOPLE IN niEIIISTORIC TIMES. 117 
 
 living beings, but things inanimate, had apparently a 
 spiritual counterpart. Tlie culture of these people 
 must have been very like that of the Mountain tribes 
 of British Burmah, —the Karens. 
 
 Bearing on the customs and beliefs of these, Mr. 
 C. T. Bingham, who lived for five years among them, 
 relates the following anecdote :* — 
 
 (He had just witnessed at early morn, the burial of 
 a child by its parents). 
 
 " As the light grew stronger, I saw that this lonely 
 grave was not the only one on the spot. On my 
 right w^as a mound on which lay the betel-box, the 
 pij^e, the haversack, and * dali ' (or chopper knife) 
 that in life had been iiis who lay beneath. 
 
 " I turned to rest on the trunk of a tree, when I 
 heard the sound of footsteps. The childless man and 
 woman were passing. 
 
 "I knew the man, and I spoke to him. 'Whose 
 grave is that ? ' I asked, pointing to the mound with 
 the betel-box and ' dah.' 
 
 " * One of the men of my village,' he replied, ' he 
 died some months ago.' 
 
 " ' Why do you leave his betel-box, haversack and 
 ' dah ' on the grave ? What use can they be to him ? ' 
 
 " ' It is our custom.' 
 " ' But why ? ' 
 
 " ' His ' lah ' (Spirit) will require them.' 
 " * But you see his ' lah ' has not taken them. 
 They are rotting away.' 
 
 * Progress 1883, page 266. 
 
118 PKEIIISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 " ' Oh no,' very promptly, ' what you see are only 
 the outer form of things. Their ' lahs ' are gone 
 away and are with his ' lah.' 
 
 " ' Where ? ' 
 
 " * In another world below this one.' 
 
 " ' And so people's ' lahs ' go into another world 
 and work as on this ? ' 
 
 " ' Yes ; and if they have no haversack and no 
 betel-box, and no ' dah,' how could they get on ? 
 How could they cut down trees and cultivate rice for 
 food if they had no ' dah ? ' 
 
 " He added, after a pause : 
 
 " ' So our people say, but I don't know, I am 
 ignorant, I am but a poor jungle fowl.' 
 
 " ' But,' I persisted, ' how do your people know 
 that it is all true — that the betel-box and other things 
 have ' lahs ' or even that man had a ' lah ' ? ' 
 
 " The Karen was silent for awhile, then he said : 
 
 " ' My child is dead, his body is there. It cannot 
 move ; yet he will come to me in my sleep — not his 
 body, but his ' lah.' So also I lost an axe long ago 
 in the woods. It fell in the forest and must have 
 rotted away long ago, yet I held it last night in my 
 hand. So it must have a 'lah.' " 
 
 When we consider the relics which accompany the 
 burials in the dolmens — the implements, battle-axes, 
 ornaments, the food material and the earthern vessels 
 — we cannot but conclude, as I have just said, that 
 the culture and mental calibre of the Robenhausians 
 were not unlike those of these hill tribes of Burmah, 
 
 It seems to me that the term " Cinerary urn " is 
 too often applied to the vessels found in dolmens. 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 119 
 
 Of the large number of urns found in Jersey and 
 Guernsey, only two to my knowledge contained ashes, 
 and it is by no means sure that these ashes were the 
 results of cremation. 
 
 One, found in the I'Ancresse dolmen and which is 
 now, with its contents intact, in the Lukis Museum 
 in Guernsey, had been closely packed with limpets 
 and mutton, and one, from the Mont Cochon dolmen 
 in Jersey, contained mutton bones. 
 
 Most of these urns are found empty, and most 
 frequently upside down. Is it not then probable that 
 the majority of these were — like the accompanying 
 implements and ornaments (and like the " dah " of 
 the Karen)— simply intended for the use of the 
 deceased in the Spirit world ? 
 
 Abundant food was placed with the body of the 
 deceased. In the Grantez dolmen, with the eight 
 interments there found, were shells of limpets 
 totalling to quite two bushels, and bones of ox, horse, 
 deer and goat, that represented a meat supply of 
 close upon the weight of the dead humans. 
 
 As we study the dolmens, from those far out on 
 the submerged forest soil to those thot bear evidence 
 of a return of the sea to the vicinity of the higher 
 land, we see that many centuries -if not many tens 
 of centuries — elapsed while dolmens were in use, yet 
 in this great period we see no signs of progress in 
 the culture of the people. It is true the pottery is of 
 rather finer texture with the later interments, and the 
 ornamentation perhaps a little more elaborate, the 
 irregular dots and scratches being replaced by cii-cles^ 
 chevrons and scrolls, but that is all. No attempt is 
 
120 rnEHiSTORic times and men of tete channel islands. 
 
 made at the delineation of a flower or any other 
 object in nature— nothing but simply conventional or 
 mystical patterns. The grand, artistic, nature- 
 inspired work of the old INIagdalenians is gone — 
 smothered, perhaps, by priestly edict. 
 
 Ages roll on, and we note a change in the aspect 
 of the land. The unceasing deformation of earth's 
 crust is bringing the forest plains beneath the waters, 
 and the salt sea is creeping far up the river estuaries. 
 No generation marks a change. With those people, 
 as with us, the contours of the land were ever the 
 same. Neolithic man was losing his territory, but 
 was not aware of the fact. Later generations could 
 gather limpets from the rocky coast to the South-west 
 of Guernsey, and the last ones, from the North- 
 west of Jersey, and whelks and cockles could be 
 obtained from the sandy estuaries. 
 
 Fresh races of men now come on the scene, men 
 with weapons and ornaments of bronze. They mingle 
 with the stone workers and we get the overlap. 
 
 Soon the islands are reduced to the meagre propor- 
 tions which had been theirs several times before, and 
 the wvaters cover all the land which at this day is less 
 than five and twenty feet above the sea. 
 
 What the dwelling places of the Robenhausians 
 were locally, we cannot tell. In Ireland they were 
 structures of wood and stone erected upon islets — 
 " Crannoges." In England, and in many parts of 
 the Continent, excavations in the soil—" Pit dwel- 
 lings." In Switzerland, structures of wood erected 
 on piles out in the lakes,— " Lake dwellings" or 
 " Palfittes." 
 
THESE ISLAOT>3 AND THEIR PEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 121 
 
 In these islands we cannot trace as much as one 
 stone laid upon another to suggest a place of habita- 
 tion, nor do they seem to have occupied the caves. 
 Massive stone structures to accommodate the dead 
 are on every side, but Ave find no relic of any 
 accommodation for the living. It then seems 
 probable that they must have dwelt either in tents or 
 in huts of wood and mud, all of which would of 
 course have perished long ago. 
 
 A fresh osciHation of land now sets in, and 
 gradually the margin of the submerged forest — now 
 with from three to five feet thick of marine clay, 
 sand and gravel, upon it— emerges, and vegetation 
 spreads over the newly exposed surface. 
 
 Guernsey becomes joined with Herm, and Jersey 
 is once more one with the Continent. 
 
 We no longer find a trace of Neolithic man as 
 such — no structure, and no im])lement, characteristic 
 of the race, occurs on the upper bed of vegetation — 
 now our upper peat bed. It is tlie age of the bronze 
 worker. 
 
 Bronze axes, spears, daggers, knives and brooches, 
 brought from the East and bearing Oriental designs, 
 are being copied. Moulds of tliem are made in clay, 
 and a few original designs are cut in soft stone. The 
 bronze founder is busy, and there are skilled artificers 
 who work in gold. 
 
 Thei'e are no local mines to exploit for the 
 necessary tin and copper, nor is there local alluvium 
 to wash for the more precious metal, but Cornwall 
 furnishes the two first named, and the river beds of 
 
122 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 Ireland furnish tlie last — and the trader is already on 
 the scene. 
 
 Here again we are puzzled to find the habitations 
 of the people. When we find — as we do many — 
 sites of bronze foundries, they are in open field and 
 there are no remains of walls, or even scattered stones, 
 to indicate a building. Either the bronze founder 
 worked in the open, or in mud hut or tent, which 
 — like that of his Neolithic predecessor —must have 
 been his dwelling. 
 
 As to the people who then occupied these lands, we 
 have no clear information, but it would seem that 
 these were a race that came from beyond the Rhine 
 — an Indo-European people, — and it is held that their 
 track can be traced. 
 
 We read of Ligurians, of Iberians, of Turanians 
 and of Celts. Of tall fair-haired Celts from the 
 North and of short swarthy Celts from the South, 
 and amid a wealth of terms there seems to be a 
 paucity of precision.* 
 
 The only clear point seems to be that it was a fresh 
 immigration from the East — that is, of Indo- 
 Europeans— that absorbed and rendered no longer 
 distinguishable those who for so long had monopo- 
 lized these lands — the Robenhausians. 
 
 Still new races arrive, men who in the valley of the 
 Danube have learnt the art of smelting iron and we 
 
 * For this vexed question, see Taylor's Origin of the Aryans, and 
 article " Celt " in the Encyclopaedia Britannica. 
 
THESE ISLANDS AND THEIR PEOPLE IN PREHISTORIC TIMES. 123 
 
 soon enter the " Early Iron Age."* 
 
 Now the conquering Romans arrive in Ganh We 
 are close upon the dawn of the Christian era, and 
 have done with Prehistoric man. 
 
 The aspect of the land has again changed. The 
 elevation that last rendered Jersey continental has 
 given place to subsidence, and presently it is only at 
 low tide that there is land connection. 
 
 (It is to this period — that of the final act of 
 separation — that refer those legends and traditions 
 which tell of the passage on foot of Ecclesiastics from 
 Coutances to Jersey. 
 
 These legends I have given in extenso in another 
 little book).t 
 
 * It is held by some that iron m'es in use as early as bronze, and 
 that it is only owing to its more perishable nature that we fail to find 
 very early iron relics. 
 
 Dr. Closmaduc, in Garr-inis et son monument, states that he once 
 found the remains of a large bar of iron beneath the stones of a 
 dolmen in Brittany. 
 
 When we consider the complex metallurgy of bronze — the 
 reduction of its constituent metals from their ores, and their correct 
 blending when reduced, and compare this with the facility with 
 which a simple iron ore, such as haematite, could be reduced and 
 rendered malleable,— a result which might occur even accidentally — 
 we cannot help thinking that if the discovery of iron did not precede 
 that of bronze, it was a very great wonder. 
 
 t Geology of Jersey. 
 
— 124 
 
 ADDENDA. 
 
 THE SUBMERGED FOREST. 
 (Plate XXI.) 
 
 TjIVEN among those who are in frequent touch 
 -^ with the areas of submerged forest land and 
 peaty soil around the shores of the Channel Islands, 
 there is some confusion with regard to the period to 
 which these deposits belong, and it is probable that 
 very few are aware that two distinct beds are there 
 represented, one comparatively modern and one very 
 ancient. Thus, when after some tidal scour at the 
 period of a low spring tide, peaty soil is laid bare in 
 the vicinity of St. Helier's Harbour, and at the same 
 time peaty soil studded with tree trunks is laid bare in 
 St. Ouen's Bay, it is quite natural to suppose that 
 these deposits represent the same ancient land level. 
 
 But such is not the case ; the exposure near St. 
 Helier's Harbour is that of the upper peat bed, a relic 
 of Jersey's last continental connection ; the great 
 submerged forest bed lies at that spot some six or 
 seven feet below. 
 
 Within the harbour, where the bottom has been 
 deepened by dredging, this upper peat bed has been 
 removed, and there— so close at hand— the great forest 
 bed is laid bare. In St. Ouen's Bay, the upper peat 
 bed (with the old marine layer beneath it) has been 
 removed by erosion, and there — as in the Harbour of 
 St. Helier— it is the great forest bed which is so 
 frequently exposed. 
 
ADDENDA. 125 
 
 Again, where both the lower and upper beds 
 extend to the rising land, they blend, and it is not 
 always easy to say for certain which is under 
 observation. 
 
 Further, on many parts of the English and 
 Continental coasts, especially in the estuaries of 
 rivers, three or four distinct peat and forest beds are 
 frequently traced, suggesting that minor land 
 oscillations have occurred which are not recorded in 
 the Channel Islands, or else that some of these 
 deposits are simply the result of landslips or of 
 compression of underlying strata.* 
 
 In these islands we have but two horizons of 
 submerged vegetation, and the one most in evidence 
 — as in St. Ouen's Bay — corresponds with the "lower 
 submerged forest," or " lower buried forest " of the 
 British shores : — the one which is immediately post- 
 glacial, and which in extent and in evidences of 
 duration renders the others of the series very 
 insignificant. 
 
 The " upper peat bed " shown at B in diagram C 
 is so scantily represented on these shores that 
 wherever I simply mention " Submerged forest," 
 this refers to what is usually known as ihe " lower 
 submerged forest," which is here so intimately 
 connected with the history of Neolithic man. This 
 striking feature of the shores of Jersey and Guernsey 
 has been the subject of many articles by different 
 writers. It has been popularly supposed that these 
 remains represent the " Forest of Scissy," which 
 I'Abbe Manet, in 1756, says was destroyed by a 
 storm in the year 709. 
 
 * See Submerged Forests, by C. Reid, p. 3 et Seq. 
 
126 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND WEN OF THE CHAXNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 A careful study of I'Abbe Manet's actual writings 
 shows however, that his " Forest of Scissy " was 
 simply such portion of the forest as was represented 
 on the shores of the Chausey islets. " Chausey " 
 being the modern rendering of " Scissy," which in 
 its turn is a shortening of " Sesiacum,'^ the Roman 
 appellation of that group of islets. That I'Abbe 
 Manet also mentions the " Forest of Cancale " plainly 
 shows that he was referring to a limited portion of 
 the forest land, and not to the whole of its vast 
 extension. 
 
 Moreover, writing as he did a thousand years after 
 an event of which there was but a tradition, and 
 seeing then, as we see to-day, the blackened stumps 
 of trees around the coast, he naturally inferred that 
 these represented the old "fertile land" which 
 tradition said had been destroyed by what was 
 termed " the fatal tide " of 709. 
 
 As a matter of fact, if there did occur an exceptional 
 storm in 709 — and there is no particular reason why 
 there might not— its work resulted simply in the 
 erosion of the covering layers of the forest bed, which 
 — as in St. Ouen's Bay and Grouville Bay, in Jersey, 
 and Vazon Bay, in Guernsey — were cultivated land. 
 
 With all that has been written locally on this 
 subject, not one writer seems to have appreciated the 
 fact that these forest remains represent a period far 
 more remote than that of the last separation of Jersey 
 from the Continent. 
 
 Of more interest, and having more bearing on the 
 question of how long Neolithic man sojourned in 
 these regions, is : To what extent did land elevation 
 
ADDENDA. 
 
 127 
 
 take place during that great forest period ? Was it 
 simply sufficient to allow a forest growth, to fringe 
 the shores of what is present day land — the 
 Continent, the British Isles, or the Channel Islands 
 themselves ? Or, was it so great as to render dry the 
 vast area which is now the " Golf Normanno-Breton," 
 and the English Channel ? 
 
 There seems to me evidence in favour of the latter 
 suggestion, as peaty soil is brought up by the dredge 
 ten miles to the North of Jersey, and the same 
 peaty soil is fished up from a depth of sixty fathoms 
 to the West of these islands. 
 
 Further than this, there occur on the South-west 
 coast of Ireland, several kinds of plants and some 
 land molluscs, which occur nowhere else in Europe 
 except on the Western coast of Portugal. In the 
 ordinary course of the geographical distribution of 
 plants and animals, this indicates a once continuous 
 shore line between those two countries— Ireland and 
 Portugal— and land consequently stretching to where 
 there is now 600 feet deep of water. 
 
 Some naturalists hold that such shore line dates 
 from far back tertiary times, and that, although 
 several glacial episodes have passed since then, these 
 plants and animals survived these periods. 
 
 (In fact, some authorities hold that in the glacial 
 period the temperature was not lower than it is now, 
 the formation of glaciers being due simply to atmos- 
 pheric conditions causing greater suow masses to 
 accumulate on the hills. How this wotdd account 
 for an Arctic fauna in these seas is however a 
 
128 PREniSTOPvIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 problem which those authorities do not seem to have 
 touched upon.)* 
 
 To me it seems more likely that the migration of 
 these forms along the shore line from South to North 
 took place in post-glacial times, consequently in the 
 age of great forests. For even if the plants could 
 have withstood periods of glaciation, certainly one of 
 the molluscs, the great soft, spotted slug, Geomaciilus 
 maculosvs — could not have done so. 
 
 Again, in this great forest area from North to 
 South, — Orkney to Brittany, — the flora and the fauna 
 are the same. Oak, beech, birch, alder, hazel, juncus, 
 hos Jovgifrons, red deer, and wolf. Even the same 
 characteristic beetles, Geotropus vernalis, and Ilelops 
 striatus, are found at each limit of this vast area. 
 
 These facts seem to point to more than isolated 
 contemporaneous forest growths, and strongly 
 indicate a one time connection of the whole. 
 
 If this be so, and as we certainly trace Neolithic 
 man's relics from beneath the roots of what must 
 have been the first vegetation of the forest, and 
 through its layers to its surface, we must conclude 
 that his sojourn was at least as long as the forest 
 period endured. A period immensely greater than 
 what has been popularly supposed. 
 
 In September, 1902, there occurred in St. Ouen's 
 Bay, Jersey, what must be a record exposure of the 
 old forest bed. 
 
 I was spending, as is my frequent custom, a week 
 end at the home of my friend, Mr. Dancaster, which 
 
 * >^eeSi:ha\Pi's History of tJie European fauu I (Conteinp. science 
 series). 
 
ADDENDA. 129 
 
 is situated about a couple of hundred yards from the 
 shore in this bay, when one morning my host 
 summoned me to the beach to witness an unusual 
 scene. I was amazed, for the fine white sand 
 which usually lies throughout this bay from five to 
 ten feet thick, had disappeared, and in its place there 
 stretched, as far as the eye could reach — North, 
 South and seaward, an expanse of firm brownish- 
 bl^ck peaty soil, which was studded with innumerable 
 tree stumps, most of these just level with the soil, 
 but many hundreds of them projecting above it for 
 two or three feet. Between these stumps were 
 prostrate trunks and large branches, with acorns, 
 seeds of telia, and hazel nuts in abundance. 
 
 The trees were close set. In one spot I roughly 
 counted over four hundred large ones within a space 
 of one acre. Some of the trees must have been of 
 veiy large size ; one stump which I measured had a 
 diameter of four feet at an elevation of three feet 
 from the ground, and another — at about the same 
 elevation — measured five feet by four feet, but part 
 of the root may have been included in this one. 
 
 It is possible to some extent to trace the generations 
 of these trees. At the lower level of the peaty soil 
 are the stumps of such as had died and rotted down 
 whilst the forest was in vigour. These are brownish 
 red in colour and cheesy in consistency. Into these, 
 and through them, the roots of later generations have 
 penetrated, as into ordinary soil. The upper stumps 
 are black in colour, and many of them of almost 
 ebony hardness. 
 
 On the occasion just named, I was fortunately able 
 
130 rREHISTORlC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL~ISLANDS . 
 
 to obtain the loan of a camera, and secure a couple of 
 photographs of the rather weird scene. Enlargements 
 of these photographs are in the Museum of the 
 Societe Jersiaise, and one is here reproduced. Very- 
 grand indeed, and quite unlike anything we have 
 to-day, must have been this vast forest, through 
 which the Neolithic people roamed. 
 
 Extensive exposures of the forest bed take place at 
 I'Ancresse Bay and Vazon Bay in Guernsey, and at 
 Longy Bay in Alderney, but there, owing to a thinner 
 protecting covering of sand, and consequently more 
 attrition, the stumps are worn down to the peat 
 surface. 
 
 THE CAA^ES OF THE COAST. 
 
 As already mentioned, there are on the steep 
 coasts of the islands many granitic and other rocky 
 caves. 
 
 They occur in all the islands, but are most 
 numerous in Jersey. 
 
 Mr. Stanley Guiton, of Jersey, who has made a 
 study of them, calculates that— considering as caves 
 all such cavities as horizontally penetrate the cliffs 
 from ten feet upwards— there are four hundred on 
 the Jersey coast alone. 
 
 The number in the other islands has not, I believe, 
 yet been estimated, but there are many of them. 
 
 Many of these caves are readily accessible, but 
 the majority can only be reached, either by boat, or 
 at considerable risk by climbing. 
 
 Professor Ansted, referring to those in the little 
 bay of Greve au LaiiQon, thus graphically describes 
 them : 
 
ADDEIiTDA. 131 
 
 "It is difficult to state the number of caverns in 
 the bay with precision ; six may be visited in 
 succession at all times except near high water, and 
 all are strikingly picturesque. Some are connected 
 with others by low, natural arches, but most of them 
 are detached. The first enters by an open inlet forty 
 or fifty yards wide, and for more than sixty yards 
 before narrowing the inlet continues in the same 
 direction. On one side however, to the right, it is 
 open for another fifty yards, and to the left becomes 
 a magnificent natural hall, perfectly straight, entering 
 for about one hundred and twenty feet, with a width 
 of nearly fifty feet at the entrance, and gradually 
 narrowing. 
 
 " The height is some twenty feet or more, and the 
 floor is strewn with large perfectly rounded pebbles 
 and large blocks of extremely white granite, although 
 the walls are of pinkish and dark grey stone. 
 
 " Some distance beyond the first opening is a group 
 of three caverns, connected by a low natural arch 
 and having in the foreground a remarkable group of 
 detached rocks, pinnacles, and large boulders. 
 
 " A cascade— the water falling exactly over the 
 entrance to one of these caves, which is situated 
 between two others, all visible from the same point — 
 produces a variety of rock scenery only to be met 
 with in the Channel Islands in this remarkable bay." 
 
 Grander than these, we have the caves on the West 
 of Sark, one of which, with a great cathedral-like 
 dcjme, is still draped with fern. Then the so-called 
 — "marble caves" on the South of Guernsey, the 
 
132 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 walls and roofs of which are of glistening white 
 quartz. 
 
 When we study these caves, and call to mind the 
 times when — instead of being assailed by stormy 
 waves and filled with salt sea-spray — they stood amid 
 forest growth and were draped and festooned with 
 shade-loving plants, it helps us to picture the environ- 
 ment of the Neolithic people. Or, looking into the 
 ages further back, we can well understand their 
 occupation by the same race of men that occupied 
 the little caves sixty feet higher up the cliffs— the far 
 back Mousterians. 
 
 It may well be that some of the abundant water- 
 worn, and all but unrecognisable, flint implements that 
 we find among the shore pebbles, are such as have 
 been washed out from these retreats. 
 
 EVIDENCES OF GLACIATION IN THE 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 In the foregoing pages I have followed the usually 
 accepted theory that, even at the period of maximum 
 glaciation, glaciers (except in greatly elevated areas — 
 the Alps, &c.), did not form further South than the 
 latitude of Hampshire, but it none the less seems 
 evident that such have played some part locally. 
 
 Wherever there are roadside cuttings which expose 
 the original rock of the district as well as its 
 covering of clay (whether the latter be the result of 
 rock decomposition in situ, or stratified deposit) the 
 surface of the rock is seen to be fractured, and the 
 fragments to more or less extent, displaced. 
 
 Further, in some places, as at Mont F^lard in 
 
ADDENDA. 133 
 
 Jersey, the stratified Archean shale is seen to be 
 crumpled and bent over towards the trend of the 
 valley. 
 
 These rock disturbances certainly seem to indicate 
 some immense superimposed and moving weight — in 
 short, glaciers. 
 
 Again, in Guernsey, Mr. Collenette, and in Jersey, 
 my son, have collected from between the clays and 
 rock surface, fragments of stone, bearing the 
 scratches which are generally accepted as " glacial 
 stria tion." 
 
 A flint implement, of either early Chellean or 
 Eolithic type, found in Jersey by Capt. H. S. Lawson, 
 has also such striation clearly defined on its flat 
 surface. 
 
 It certainly seems that although the land in these 
 Islands nowhere rises to much more than from 300 
 to 400 feet, glaciers were once present.* 
 
 THE PRESENCE OF FLINT IN THE ISLANDS. 
 
 Among the masses of pebbles of present day local 
 rock, around the shores of the islands, there occurs a 
 small percentage of flint nodules. The popular 
 notion is that these have been brought as ballast by 
 vessels trading with the islands. But why vessels 
 should jettison ballast around the entire coasts of the 
 islands and around all their adjacent islets.is a question 
 which does not seem to have entered the popular 
 mind. It is evident that these nodules— like the 
 
 * It i8 true that in various works on Geology there is mention of 
 ice-transported blocks from the Channel Islands.irom Brittany, &c.,but 
 I think that glacial orthodoxy holds Hampshire to be the Southern 
 limit of glaciation at moderate altitudes. 
 
134 PREHISTORIC TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 sandstone and limestone peLbles, and the occasional 
 lamps of Devonian shale around our shores, — are the 
 more resistant portions of the rocks by which the 
 tougher islands were once invested, and that Hint- 
 containing cretaceous beds must have occurred 
 among those investing rocks. 
 
 Withiii the soil of the islands there occur no flints 
 as natural deposit, and there is evidence that during 
 the period of the great cretaceous subsidence, these 
 areas were above the sea. 
 
 It then follows that such flints, — be they worked 
 or unworked — as occur within the clays, — even when 
 such clays have been carried down the slopes as 
 " boulder clay," — must have been brought there by 
 human agency. This fact strongly supports the 
 evidence in favour of such chipped ones as occur 
 beneath the lower boulder clay, being human 
 artefacts. 
 
 Of course, in the raised beaches, even at some 
 height up the cliff sides, flint nodules occur, but 
 these, like the present day ones around the shores, 
 are of extraneous origin, and always accompanied by 
 ordinary pebbles and other beach material. 
 
 If cretaceous and flint-bearing deposits had ever 
 lain over the islands, it seems fairly certain that 
 flints would be found in the valleys and rocky 
 recesses, and that there would be here, as in England 
 and on the Continent, " chalky boulder clays," but 
 there are none. 
 
ADDEITOA, 135 
 
 THE SUBMERGED VALLEYS AND OTHER 
 DEPRESSIONS AROUND THE CHANNEL 
 
 ISLANDS. 
 
 When I state that the sounding line enables us to 
 trace the contours of the now submerged land 
 surface, I am aware that I am expressing an opinion 
 which is against that of some eminent authorities, — 
 for instance, Mr. Clement Reid, F.R.S. ■•• makes 
 mention of the deep troughs around the Channel 
 Islands, and attributes them to tidal scour. 
 
 He says of sucli depressions in general (page 86) : — 
 " We are sometimes told that the various basins, 
 troughs, and channels, shown on the Chart, represent 
 submerged land valleys, and prove enormous changes 
 of sea level in modern times. How a submerged 
 valley in a narrow sea like the English Channel could 
 remain long without silting up, is not clear, the sand 
 banks on either side should tend to wash in and fill 
 up the hollows. The troughs all coincide with lines 
 of tidal scour." 
 
 It is of course perfectly obvious that troughs will 
 be formed where, in shallow waters, the sea runs 
 swiftly through narrow channels, and equally obvious 
 that silting will take place somewhere in proximit.y 
 as a result, also that silting will take place where 
 material is brought down hy rivers. But I hold that 
 the channels and other depressions, and the elevations, 
 around the Channel Islands, are not due to these 
 factors. 
 
 Let us consider the long and narrow channel 
 known as " Hurd Deep." We can trace tliis for 
 
 *Submerged Forests, Cambridge University Press, 1913. 
 
136 PRKHISTORIG TIMES AND MEN OF THE CHANNEL ISLANDS. 
 
 nearly a hundred miles along the North of the islands. 
 It is from one to two miles in width and has a depth 
 of about 200 feet. Its sides slope steeply and are 
 well defined. Moreover, along its banks are several 
 areas of peaty soil representing submerged forest 
 land, which would scarcely be retained there in the 
 presence of either tidal scour or of silting. The 
 configuration of this long channel, as well as its 
 position and direction, proclaim it to be the bed of 
 the river Seine — or rather of the combined rivers 
 Seine and Somme — at each period when, in recent 
 geological time, the land has stood at anything over 
 250 feet above its present level. 
 
 There is a depression four miles off Cape la Hague, 
 known as " la Fosse de la Hague," which, as we 
 glance at the chart, certainly suggests a line of tidal 
 scour, but when we study its details we can hardly 
 retain this opinion. 
 
 It is not a channel, but an elongated basin, some 
 eight miles in length and one mile in width. It is 
 90 feet lower than the surrounding sea-bottom and as 
 deep at the ends as in the centre. 
 
 The water at this part of the coast at mean tide is 
 300 feet in depth, and the run of tide at the surface 
 but from three to four knots per hour, so that in the 
 basin, the water must be practically still. 
 
 In the depression known as " le Riiau " between 
 Jersey and the Ecrehou reefs, — which depression I 
 hold to be the ancient course of the River Aye of 
 Normandy — are oyster beds which have been fished 
 from time immemorial. Each of these oyster beds 
 is in the form of a circle or an oval, marking where, 
 
ADDENDA. 137 
 
 for countless generations, the floating, microscopic, 
 oyster larvae have settled in proximity to, and around, 
 the parent stock — the point of dissemination ; thus 
 indicating perfectly still water in that channel, and 
 neither scour nor silting. 
 
 If we study the large mariner's chart of Jersey, 
 wherein the details of the sea bottom ate minutely 
 given, we note areas of a square mile or two in extent 
 which are forty to fifty feet lower than the surround- 
 ing ground and not in the line of any tidal currents. 
 One of these lies to the North of Bouley Bay, and one 
 to the North of St. Catherine, and these clearly 
 indicate former bogs, marshes, or shallow lakes. 
 
 Of course there are shifting sand banks on the 
 sandy coasts, as at Portbail and St. Ouen's Bay, but 
 these are all within the range of either the surf or 
 the ground swell, and so do not impair my argument 
 that ofi shore, the sounding line is a fair guide to the 
 contours of the former land surface around the 
 Channel Islands. 
 
MAPS AND PLATES. 
 
11 AP I. 
 
 £ N G L A M D 
 
 ^rsGLl 
 
 5H 
 
 CHAf^ 
 
 v^ei 
 
 The. Ctxsqad^ 
 
 Aldekhey 
 
 
 JeKsev A/-vJ 
 
 y f ? ^? :go yV//e5 
 
 ^a^c 
 
 MLnq,uiers ^^. 
 
 L-^Kt 
 
 ((^ 
 
 Chcai5e(j h *■ ICrranvllle 
 
 ances 
 
 5''3ricuc 
 
MAP II. 
 
MAI 
 
 U&RMS€>r 
 
 References >- 
 
 Dolmen /?! tatr preservation (n) 
 
 cL- in ruitii Q) 
 
 a? proba hit @ 
 
 PltinhLr . - A 
 
 flcoUihi'c Tombs ^ 
 
 Sulnurqed fortst ~z~ 
 
 The numl/trs uidiciiU cL^aiwn tramtm^n lilU Icvtl. 
 Dol-r.er. 3,-ici other sl^^: s^re or.l\j 
 sh'-'wn. e^pprox.imi.lel^ . 
 
 
 
 ? JL^e (u) 
 
 "^ 5TP£reR 
 
 RoCQUfiitie '! 3Q IN ^ 
 
 / ^THe WOOD 
 
 
 VALE 
 S^SAnP50M/ 
 
 CATei 
 
 (00 
 
 V/\ionbRY j-S; 
 
 r^ ST SAVIOUR 
 
 fiijimord 
 
 s"" pereFi- 
 
 PORT 300 
 
 BciLtuRlve 
 Bpiy 
 
 C3 
 
 HMELerB. 
 
 s^AHDaew 
 
 «B0 
 
 ^/9r 
 
 
 ^ ( 
 
 A, 
 
 -^v^' 
 
 loRTcVAL 
 
 F0Rc5T '"-^^Xp/fu^rB/^r 
 
 X50 
 
 Sca.Lt of tltUs 
 
 
 =3 
 
PLATE I. 
 
 ^^-j"^- 
 
 
 "S^^'^^ 
 
 I'lioln R. F. Guitiiii. 
 
 2UW Vertical Section of Clifl in Belcroute Bay, Jersey. 
 
 A Present Day Beach. B Clay and Stone Fragments. C Raised Beach. 
 
 D Consolidated Sand and Fine Clay. E Lower l^oulder Clay. 
 
 F Old Land Surface (Land Shells, &c. i G Upper Boulder Clay. (page 43). 
 
PLATE II. 
 
 I'lio'o K. !■'. Gtitli'ii. 
 
 Eai'ly Clielleaii (or Strcp\'auj Fliiil Inipltjiuenls. (page 47). 
 
PLATE III. 
 
 PItolc F. F. Guitiii. 
 
 VWul 1 niplrnieiits of Aclieuliaii Ivpf. (p<i,<;e 47). 
 
PT.ATE IV. 
 
 Mousterian Cave dwellings " Colte a la Chevre," St. Oueii, lioiu the Sea. 
 
 (page 491. 
 
PLATE V. 
 
 Entrance to Mousterian Cave dwellin^,^ "Cotte a la Clirvre," St. Onen. 
 
 (page 49 j. 
 
PLATE VI. 
 
 \ 
 
 4 
 
 #^ 
 
 Photo, E.F.GUIlOh. 
 Early Mousterian Implements from "Cotte a la Chevre." (page 54) 
 
PLATE \II. 
 
 Plioto E. F. Guilon. 
 
 Entrance to Mousterian Cave dwelling, "La Coite," St. I'relade, IVom 
 
 tide margin, (page 54). 
 
PLATE YU\. 
 
 
 
 r.i.,i^ E. 1- . Cudon. 
 
 Mousterian Cave dwelliii<,% "La Cotte," St. iSrelade, during exploration. 
 
PLATE TX. 
 
 PJioto E. F. Guiton. 
 
 Mousterian I'liiit liiipleiiients from " La Cotte," St. Brelade. 
 
 (page 6i). 
 
PLATK X. 
 
 Teelh of Homo Bycladnisis, lioni '-Lu Cotte," Si. Brehides. (page ()2). 
 
PLATE XI. 
 
 Section of Strata, "La Alolte," showing section of Neolithic 'J 
 
 (page 74). 
 
 oinl). 
 
T'T.ATE XIT. 
 
 
 Neolithic Tombs, "La Motte." ipage 74). 
 
PLATK X 
 
 Skull tioui Necjliiluc Tomb, "La MotLe." (page 75) 
 
PLAT?: XIV. 
 
 Skull froii) J5oulcler Clay, "La Motte." (page 78). 
 
PLATE XV. 
 
 Dolmen at Faldoud, Jersey, (page .Si 
 
PLATE XVI. 
 
 
 Dulnien at IMont (jtantez, Jersey, (p 
 
 ages 82 and 84) 
 
PLATE XVII. 
 
 m 
 
 Utili/ed TehMes ( .1 ,, and rulishcd SU^ie Axes (UJ, Neolithic, (pai^e 73). 
 
PLATE XV HI. 
 
 I'hoto E.F. Guilon. 
 
 Neolilliic Axe aihl Stout' Mummers, (pages 86 and 87). 
 
PLATE XIX. 
 
 photo E. F, Guitoi: 
 
 Granite Milling Stones, (page 86). 
 
PLATE XX. 
 
 /'/,„/,) /•;. F. (iiiiioii. 
 
 Gold Torque, (page 89). 
 
PLATE XXI. 
 
 (^ 
 
 
 
 '^ 
 
 % 
 
 % I 
 
 * 
 
 i 
 
 
 Submerged I'orest, St. Oii('irs|I !a\ , Jcrst'v. (piige 124). 
 (^The Rock-like iMasses are rooted Tree Sluinps). 
 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 BERKELEY 
 
 Return to desk from which borrowed. 
 This book is DUE on the last date stamped below. 
 
 14May49JM 
 
 
 .6^\-^ 
 
 1952 yi 
 
 LD 21-100m-9,'48(B399sl6)476 
 
YC 27727 
 
^ 
 
 fc