Page:Cornwall (Mitton).djvu/70

 THE "TOE" OF CORNWALL 37 from the mainland. Perhaps the reason is the greater variety and grandeur of the buildings on St. Michel. The old name of Marazion was Market-jew, and the two together certainly make most people imagine there is some Israelitish association ; but this is unfounded. Marazion is "the market by the seaside," and Market-jew " the market on the side of the hill." Some have supposed the Mount to have been the Ictis of the ancient tin trade, where the merchants from far met the inhabitants to barter for tin. " When they have cast it [the tin] into the form of cubes, they carry it to a certain island adjoining Britain called Ictis. During the recess of the tide the intervening space is left dry, and they carry over abundance of tin in carts" (Diodorus Siculus). Many other islands have been suggested to fit this account, even the Isle of Wight ; but the bed of the sea must have changed very quickly if people could in historic times pass over to it on foot at low tide ! The legend of the fair land of Lyonnesse is supported by the evidence of a submarine forest in Mount's Bay, noted by Borlase in 1757. This seems to have been a wood chiefly of hazel, but with alders, oaks, and other trees, and is by no means