THE CHANNEL ISLANDS.

son. Proofs of habitation there are indeed; the year from sunrise to eight p.m. Somefor everywhere there are picturesque cotta- times after a gale a very busy scene is preges, where the fuchsia attains the height of sented, especially in Rocquaine Bay, at the a tree, where the cameltaia is a shrub wide south-west angle of the Guernsey. A long spread and taller than a man, where the row of peasants will be seen standing upon hydrangea is as prodigal of blossom as in the the beach armed with rakes, and by the bay of Glengariffe, which the visitor of the side of them a mound of weed which they Irish Lakes knows so well, and where even have gathered together, but which they the aloe and the myrtle flourish and flower. must not take away until the sunrise gun But if you try to enter one of those dwelllngs announces the beginning of the day. No in order to ask your way, you will find the sooner has the distant boom been heard door fast, and the house empty. But the than they set to work with astonishing vighousehold are not far off. You may not see our, and carry off their treasure in carts, if them, but you can hear the tinkle of sharp- they are fortunate enough to possess any, ening scythes or a murmur of human voices. or more often in panniers carried by horses The regulations which provide They are all workers here; father, mother, or asses. son, and daughter, alike, till the ground, for for the cutting of the vraic scié are still that ground is their own. Spade husbandry more strict. The first harvest begins at the is carried to perfection here, where labour first new or full moon after February 1st, costs but little, and, to use Arthur Young's and lasts five weeks. The second begins famous saying, "the magic of ownership in the middle of June and ends on August So 31st. The summer cutting is limited for turns the very rocks into gold." all day long they toil in the field, and at the first month to the poor, or people who eventide they divert themselves by toiling have no cattle. They are not allowed to in their gardens. Their farms are little carry it by barrow to a cart, but must transThe cutting of more than gardens. They are usually of port it above high spring tide, and from from ten to twenty acres. Fifty acres is an thence it is carted away. exceptionally large holding. Thus every the vraic," says Mr. Ansted, "is the occainch of ground is made productive; thanks sion of a general holiday. The rocks havto the climate, and to the implement which ing been examined the day before by the has made the sands of Flanders a veritable men, large parties grouped into sets of two Pactolus, and concerning which the Italian or three families, resort to the most promisproverb says, that while the plough has a ing places where the weed is thickest and share of iron, the spade has an edge of longest, and cut it with a small kind of reaping hook, throwing it into heaps until gold." the tide flows. It is then carried out of reach of the advancing tide as fast as possible. The evening after the days' work, the parties meet at some neighbouring house of refreshment, where the lit de fouaille is fitted up for the occasion and lighted up. The evening closes with a dance." The total amount of vraic collected yearly around Guernsey is about 30,000 loads, and as the value of a load is reckoned to be two shillings on the beach here at once is a source of wealth equal to £3,000 a year. Jersey probably supplies an even larger amount. On an average about one acre in five in the larger islands, and nearly as much in Alderney and Sark, is manured with litter and seaweed to the amount of ten loads to the acre, or with the ashes of the weed that has already done duty as fuel. In potato culture this application has been remarkably successful, land so treated yielding on an average twenty tons of potatoes to the acre. But it is not only for agricultural and domestic purposes that the vraic is available. It is used in the manufacture of barilla, especially in the Chaussey Islands, and

We shall have to speak hereafter of the peasant farming of the Channel Islands, à favourite theme with political economists of the Mill school. There is one particular crop which we must notice here since it is in Guernsey that the gathering in of it is seen to greatest advantage. It is a portion "which of that great "harvest of the sea we are too apt to undervalue. Locally the crop is called vraic, we should call it seaweed. Though a weed, the picking of it is It is restricted by very stringent laws. only at two seasons of the year that vraic may be gathered, in July and in February. The summer crop is stacked in ricks and left to dry beneath the sun, and is used for fuel. The winter crop is spread upon the land as manure, and is a most valuable fertilizer, especially when mixed with stable refuse. The ashes of the summer crop also are applied with good effect to the soil. The cottagers get sixpence a bushel for this. The seaweed is of two kinds-that which adheres to the rocks, vraic scié, and the drift, vraic venant. The gathering of the latter is allowed to all persons throughout

to the Home Secretary of that time, Sir | a million sterling has now been expended on the James Graham, and pointed out the neces- 1,200 yards of the west breakwater at present carried out. sity of converting Alderney into a stronghold which should be both a haven of refuge for our own fleet, and a point of attack upon the enemy's. He said that of all the islands, Alderney was the most important, and that so long as it was unprotected, one hour and two large steamers would suffice to place France in possession of it, and then it would not be possible to dispossess her. Having established herself there she would be able to reduce the other islands at leisure; while England, engaged as she would then be in a struggle for very existence, would not have the strength to undertake so major an operation of warfare as the recovery of the islands. On the other hand, if strongly secured, Alderney would serve as an effectual check upon Cherbourg. By raising a tower on the Touraille Hill, or Essex-heights, it would be possible to look into the French stronghold. From La Hogue to the Bill of Portland is fifty-seven miles, and as the Swinge and the Race cannot be blockaded, fifteen miles of the distance would be in the possession of the French, with a harbour for any number of vessels. The sun rises at the back of the position, and therefore French ships of war would see an English ship two or three hours before she could be observed from Portland, and they would pounce upon her before help from England could reach her. Seven years later, in 1852, Napier again wrote to urge the fortification of Alderney. He said a defended harbour would form the rendezvous of a squadron blockading Cherbourg. If the Cherbourg • fleet came out the Alderney fleet would send expresses to the Channel squadron, and a general engagement woald take place between Dover and Portland. These representations produced their effect, and one of the most costly even of government jobs was soon afterwards begun. Three large forts and a breakwater have been constructed, and the anchorage has been cleared of several rocks. Mr. Ansted writing in 1865, says:

The east breakwater is not yet commenced. . . . Great as has been the error in the construction of the harbour, and although, beyond doubt, the accommodation when completed will be far less and far worse than it ought to have been, no policy could be more absurd or suicidal than to stop or check the works in their present state. The shelter that will be afforded when the works are completed is an object of great importance. To obtain this, vast sums have been expended in constructing a long series of forts to command efficiently some five miles of coast. It is in this harbour that our merchant ships would look for safety in the event of war. It is here that gunboats and other ships of war would collect; to this place they would repair for coals and stores; here they might refit; and hence they might issue to cut off and destroy an enemy stationed at Cherbourg. If the Channel Islands are to be preserved, and that the possession of these islands means the possession of the Channel is more than ever the case now, it can be only by rendering Alderney useful as well as strong; and much of this refuge. It is not now time to consider what usefulness consists in there being a harbour of might have been done better: but it is a very serious question indeed, what can be done best with the materials still at our command."

Our naval and military authorities seem to have been peculiarly unfortunate in the Channel Islands. Alderney is quite a byeword and a reproach, and a few years ago the yearly vote for carrying on the works was made the subject of a sharp Parliamentary struggle. A more disastrous undertaking, because wholly useless, was commenced some years ago in St. Catherine's Bay, Jersey. One day, in hot haste the Admiralty bought for £80,000, a piece of ground worth £3,000, with the idea of erecting a fortress. This has not been commenced, nor is it likely to be. The harbour which the fort was to protect, was however begun, and after a magnificent pier about a third of a mile long, and constructed in the most substantial and costly manner, had been completed, and a second arm of rough rock work had been partly made, it was discovered that the water was not deep enough to hold ships; "To enlarge the original design (which was and now after that half-a-million sterling either too much or too little), it was determined has been squandered, the works have been to alter the direction of the west breakwater to abandoned, the pier is covered with weeds, east north-east. This has involved a large and the lighthouse that was erected to guide quantity of work done in water upwards of storm-tost ships into a fair haven, has to be twenty fathoms deep, and has completely cut across the excellent anchorage that might have lighted every night to warn them from combeen procured by carrying the breakwater from ing near. rock to rock. Had the latter work been decided on, a magnificent harbour would have been secured at a comparatively small expense. Nearly

Even had the harbour been successful as regards its capabilities, it would have been wrongly placed. It overlooks the sandy portless coast of Normandy, south of

Cape La Hogue, instead of towards that point and Cherbourg, as it would have done on the other side of the island.

beach. The sands of Whitesand Bay, near the Land's End, are prolific in shells, but they cannot bear comparison with this wonderful shore. Here the sand is made up entirely of shells whole or in fragments. Every handful contains myriad tenantless abodes of animal life. Exquisite in form, glorious in colour, they quite overpower the imagination with a reality so far beyond conception. Lying there at length, far away from the turmoil of life in London, the wearied holiday-taker is startled by the apparent waste of creative power. It seems wonderful that so little account of life should be taken by the Great Life-giver. He is humiliated to think that year after year fresh stores of structural beauty are added, to be washed away again, without being beheld by a human eye. To what purpose, he asks, was this waste? He cannot solve the "riddle of the painful earth," and if he leaves the sands, and when the water is out, will wade barefooted among the pools that the sea has left between sharp ridges of rock and rounded slopes of sand, and watch the fairy forms of life, half animal and half vegtable, the flesh-like, flower-like petals of the sea anemone, pale pink, bright orange, deep crimson, he will be still more overcome by the vastness of that universe, whose very puddles are kingdoms.

Reculer pour mieux sauter. We go back to Guernsey in order to make a better start for the other islands. Exactly opposite St. Peter's Port lie Herm and Jethou, two islands that bear to each other the same relations as a frigate and her tender gunboat. They form part of a reef of granite, most picturesque but most dangerous, which stretches towards Guernsey, and which makes the "Little Russell "the most difficult of all the many perilous passages in these waters. The first of them presents every variety of coast scenery, and is much after the same type as Guernsey. Like that island it is steep towards the south, and stretches along in long sandy flats northwards. The rocks being a softer granite than in Guernsey, it is more cleft by the action of the sea. Herm abounds in caverns, wherein the brilliant green of luxuriant ferns is vividly set of by the background of swarthy cliff. Little bays lie surrounded by steep slopes, full of wild flowers, down the side of which the tourist has worn a winding path. Here the sand is as smooth as velvet, as firm as marble to the foot, and the intense brilliancy and clearness of the water irresistibly invite to bathe. The surface of the island is remarkably irregular. Here there is a steep hill with flanking valleys, bounding to the sea. Here there are steep cliffs, at the foot of which it is possible to walk only at low water. Here there is a flat table land covered with coarse grass and margined by a long reach of sand. An enterprising gentleman has undertaken to cultivate the island, and he has a comfortable house and convenient farm buildings. The soil is good, consisting of decomposed granite, which in Cornwall yields such wonderful crops of early vegetables for Covent Garden. But the great deficiency of the island is the want of water. Through this He who has not seen Sark has not seen it became necessary for the Lord of Herm the Channel Islands. The geography books. to sell off his fine herd of Alderney cattle that we used to learn when we were young during a recent dry summer. The abori told us that this was a barren and rocky gines are as troublesome to him in their way island, and that was all they told us. as the Maories have proved to the New Zea- were left to infer that it was uninhabited and land settlers. These foes are the rabbits, desolate, a place little favoured by God and and not only do they work havoc among the forsaken by man. Rocky it is, but not barcrops, but they are undermining the island, ren. It is so rocky that the Lords of the and are the cause of the frequent landslips, Admiralty once steamed round and round which are diminishing its area. Herm is the island, and finding no landing place not given up wholly to agriculture. There gave up their intended visit in despair. But are granite quarries, which of late have been the interior is fertile enough. The island is worked with considerable vigour on account a bowl, and the concavity of it abounds with of extensive orders for the Thames Embank- tree and flower and fern, and there are ment. The chief glory of Herm is its shell | nooks of luxuriant greenery and leafy lanes

Jethou lies to the south of Herm, and is separated from it by a narrow but deep channel. Strictly speaking, it consists of a group of three islands, being itself by far the largest. It is steeper and higher than Herm, and it has one house, occupied by the tenant who farms the island. Southwards there is a series of dangerous rocks. spite of the difficulties of navigation, visitors to Herm and Jethou are numerous. Thousands of excursionists brave an hour's seasickness, and a possible wreck, in order to visit spots that are indeed worth a heavier sacrifice.

In.

We

THE CHANNEL ISLAND S.

Far out at sea there was the soft haze of summer, hiding the glare of the French coast that would otherwise have been visible, to tell of the great world of Europe. Close at band there was no sound save the humming of the bee and the crisp rustle of the cattle as they cropped the short grass Then, as the morning wore on, the people gathered from the scattered cottages and wended their way to the unadorned church, wherein no sign of cope or chasuble, crucifix or thurible is likely to intrude for centuries to

come.

old and cherished words or scenes well nigh forgotten-that was delight keen enough to render that summer Sabbath for ever a red-letter day in the writer's calendar.

such as Devonshire would not be ashamed to own. So far is it from being uninhabited, that the only fear of the islanders is that they will be over-populated. The navigation thither is intricate and not a little perilous, so that the Sark pilots who have learnt to thread the watery maze, and to encounter the dangers of rock and shoal, have a A reputation for skill and hardihood. steamer goes from Guernsey to Sark about once a week in summer, and luggers go every day. But in winter when the wind There the old familiar prayers is tempestuous, still more when there is a calm accompanied by a fog, it is often im- sounded strangely in another tongue, and possible to hold communication for more the psalter was sung to grand chorales than a week. Twelve days have been known worthy to be included in Sebastian Bach's to elapse before the Sarkites could learn Gesangbuch. Then, to wander slowly over anything of what was going on in the great the downs, with the sea visible to almost all world of Guernsey. If the weather be fine, around the island; to sit upon the farthest the most pleasant way of crossing is to em- point of some giddy height and gaze at the bark in one of the luggers. With a breeze heaving water almost steel blue, as seen far sufficient to freshen the sea and swell the below and between the peaks and altars of to think, by way sails one goes bounding along past bold rock that storms had severed from the island of hot groups of rocks and islets tenanted by sea and left standing apart fowl, until the southern extremity of Sark is of deepening the deep repose, reached. Then the tack is altered, and the churches crowded with worshippers in gorlittle vessel glides along more slowly in geous attire, not to read, but simply to smooth water, sheltered by the high cliffsmuse and brood and live again in memory' that rise up precipitously from the shore, and are here and there pierced with caverns, until it reaches the pier which their naval lordships thought too insignificant to notice. There is one peculiarity which cannot but Landing here is not an easy matter, for one has to walk the plank under the most favour- heighten the strange dreamy thoughts that able circumstances, and if the sea be at all the visitor must feel at finding himself on such fresh one must be prepared for a wade. a spot as this. The Sarkites walk about in Even when this has been done it is by no sable garments. In Guernsey there seemed means easy to discover where the portal is to be an unusally large number of mournwhich is to give us an outlet from this rock- ers going about the streets; but in Sark the bound bay and entrance into the island. whole population are clad in the gloomy One is tempted to supAdvantage has been taken of a soft cliff costume of death. which the sea had partly excavated to pierce pose that some great pestilence has swept a tunnel, and this is the gateway into the do-over the people, and left one-half of them main of the Lord of Sark. That passed the lamenting for the other half laid in their You cannot learn that any such adventurer toils up a steep road, at first be- graves. tween turfy hills, but presently through a tree- calamity has befallen them. Their weeds shaded lane, past cottages that tell of human appear to be due to other causes. The island inhabitants, past a church, a post-office, and is small and the inhabitants intermarry so an inn, which reveal a certain degree of civili- much that they are like one large family, of That is one reason; but zation, and then downwards through mead- which if one member suffers all the other to a members grieve. The Sarkites are an ecoows and "happy orchard lawns" charming rustic hotel lying at the head of a there is another. luxuriant glen that slopes down to the lower nomical race, and having bought a good sands and the blue sea. It happened to the black stuff gown, or a good black cloth coat, writer to spend a Sunday here not long they will wear it until it is worn out. They since, and anything more truly Sabbatical don't adopt the modern London fashion of than that day he never experienced. It was wearing mourning three weeks. Tenderness absolute rest, most welcome to one wearied and thriftiness alike forbid. They are not by eleven months' toil in the greatest of only tender and thrifty, they are independent. cities. The ripple ran softly up the sand, They pass their own laws and no one has the and then glided back with scarce a sound. right of veto save the Seigneur. Their Parlia