One of the most interesting of the submerged forests seen between tide-marks on the French coast was that discovered a few years since by Monsieur Emil Gadeceau in Belle Ile. This island lies off the mouth of the Loire, and its position some way from the coast and well out in the Atlantic induced him to make a special study of its flora. While engaged in this, his attention was drawn to certain hard peaty deposits seen only at low tide, and he asked me to undertake the examination of the seeds found in them. This work was gladly undertaken, as it carried further south the examination which was then being made into the flora of the submerged forests. The results were somewhat surprising; out of about 30 species sufficiently well preserved for identification, six were no longer living in Belle Ile, though known in Western France. The whole flora might have come from the north of England, characteristic French species being entirely missing, though this element is fairly represented in the living flora of the island. In short, the flora is a northern one, though in no degree arctic, and in this it agrees well with the poor assemblage commonly found in the submerged forests of the south of England. From still further south, at various points on the shores of the Bay of Biscay, and from the submerged peaty deposits which underlie the Landes, seeds have since been collected by my friend, Professor Jules Welsch, of Poitiers. These also all belong to common living British plants, except that at Brétignolles, south of latitude 47°, we meet for the first time one characteristic southern plant—the vine. Unfortunately the search for traces of man and his works in these deposits has so far been unsuccessful, and we cannot yet be certain therefore that they are all of quite the same date, or correspond exactly with the submerged forests of Britain. CHAPTER VIII SUMMARY To what conclusions do the foregoing somewhat monotonous pages lead? Do they help us to explain the origin of our fauna and flora? What light do they throw on the antiquity of man in Britain, or on the race problems that everywhere confront us? Can the deposits therein described be in any way connected with written history or with legend? Do they give us any approach to a measure of geological time? And, to what extent does the period of the submerged forests tie on historical times with the Glacial Epoch? All these questions are connected with the subject-matter of this little book; but it is not written with the idea of showing how much we know or pretend to know. Our main object is to draw attention to a much neglected period in geological history and to suggest directions in which further research is likely to be profitable. We have, however, made out several points, and can give an approximate answer to some of the questions.