Page:Prehistoric Britain.djvu/141

Rh Closmadeuc has shown that on Er Lanic there is a double cromlech in the form of the figure 8, the half of which is now entirely submerged. These deductions seem to be confirmed by the numerous legendary traditions of buried cities which are prevalent in this part of Europe.

According to the Abbé Hamard (Ibid., p. 37), there is an old manuscript, of the eighth or ninth century, preserved in the library of Avranches, in which it is stated that formerly there was, in the vicinity of Mont-Saint- Michel, a dense forest extending six miles from the sea which harboured all manner of wild beasts. Now the whole district is covered by the sea and sand-beds. To show how much the sea has encroached an the land in these parts he reproduces on old map of Contentin, of the thirteenth century, which shows Mont-Saint-Michel a long way inland, the island of Jersey as united to the Continent, and a corresponding increase of land all along the adjacent shores.

When the ethnological problems regarding the immigrations into Britain of Neolithic races fall to be considered we shall have a few further remarks to make on submerged antiquities, and their bearing on the solution of the supposed hiatus in the continuity of a human population in Britain since Palæolithic times.