Page:Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 1.djvu/154

 142 that St. Michael's Mount, situated in Mount's Bay, at the distance of a quarter of a mile from the nearest land, (Marazion) had been separated from it at a period, apparently not very remote, since some carry their pretensions so far as to state the quantity of land and the number of churches, that were swallowed up. Dr. Maton has taken the trouble to collect together the different accounts of this matter.

I do not presume to reject, or even to lessen, the degree of confidence which ought to be placed in historical records of very remote. date, notwithstanding the general tendency of the human mind to receive with eagerness every thing that is at all extraordinary, especially if presented in a plausible shape. All that I can say is, that upon an examination of the place, I am satisfied, that if a separation did ever take place (an event certainly possible and even probable) it must have been previous to the deposition of the grauwacke formation, consequently at a period, which I presume is extremely remote from that of any historical record whatsoever. The strata of grauwacke, which all along the south slope of the mountain-chain of Cornwall, invariably dip S.S.E. have here, a direction exactly the reverse, viz. they dip N.N.W. This maybe seen near the bottom of the northern side of the mount, which is the least abrupt, exactly in the meridian of Ludgvan Church-town, near a well of fresh water, the only water fit for drinking which the inhabitants have when they are surrounded by the tide.

The grauwacke extends westward, facing Penzance, and seldom rises above the eighth part of the absolute height of the mount;