fire, the outlying points of the Channel Islands and the whole adjacent land.

From Cape la Hague, in Normandy, to Les Héaux, in Brittany, there are no less than thirteen lights, several of them of the first class, placed at intervals on the French coast. The Casquets light, and a light recently placed on the Hanois rocks, near Guernsey, mark the approach to the islands from the Channel; while various coast and harbour lights on all the principal islands assist in pointing out to the mariner the dangers that exist to navigation and the welcome refuge offered.

The subjoined cut represents the Chasse marée, a kind of French coasting vessel, characteristic of the Channel, and often seen in Guernsey seeking shelter from westerly gales. These craft are extremely picturesque, and were formerly common. Diminished smuggling and improved navigation have rendered their visits less frequent of late years.

A FORMIDABLE mass of hard rock, forming the north-western extremity of the Cotentin and terminated by Cape la Hague, serves as a buttress protecting that part of Normandy which ranges northwards from Mont St. Michel. This headland is separated by a narrow channel of no great depth from the northernmost of the three principal groups of the Channel Islands; and, through this channel, the sea, at high spring tides, sweeps at the rate of eight miles an hour, in a steady current. From the rocks beyond Cape la Hague, to those that fringe Alderney (the nearest land), there is a distance of only six miles, of which little more than two miles exceeds twenty fathoms in depth. This passage is called the Race (or Ras) of Alderney. extreme distance from the Cape la Hague to the nearest land of Alderney, is about eight and a-half miles, the direction being nearly due west.

The

FORM OF ALDERNEY.

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Alderney is the largest and principal island of the northern group; and, as a military position, it may be regarded as the Ehrenbreitstein of the English Channel.* It is oblong, or long oval, in form, lying north-east and south-west. It lies between 39° 42′ and 39° 44′ north latitude; and between 2° 9 and 2° 14' west longitude. One half of the island, divided by a line running east and west from the Braye to Longy, is high; the extreme height being about 280 feet. The length of the island from north-east to south-west, is about three and a-half miles, and its width about one mile. The greater part of the island is a flat table land, more or less cultivated. The land continues flat to the edge of the south-eastern and southern cliffs, which are wonderfully grand, and there descends almost vertically into the sea, presenting to the lover of fine scenery, a succession of magnificent examples of broken and perpendicular walls of rock. On the north side of the island, the ground slopes gradually towards a succession of bays, more or less tame.

It will now be desirable to communicate to the reader some idea of the island, by a survey of the coast. Approaching from Guernsey, the exceedingly lofty and abrupt cliffs of Alderney are somewhat masked by a number of detached rocks or islets, lying a short distance from the south-western extremity of the land. A still nearer approach separates them, and shows something of their magnitude and importance. This coast terminates at a small battery or rock fortress, standing out about a furlong from the land, with which it connects by a causeway. The Clonque, as this fortress is named, is the first of an important series of defences which run round nearly five miles of coast, reaching from the Clonque to Fort Essex. The Clonque is

* It corresponds, however, to what Ehrenbreitstein would be, if in the hands of the French, and held against Germany, rather than to the value of that fortress in the hands of Prussia. As an island, Alderney is considered defensible; but it has a large exposed surface; and only one of the forts (la Touraille), is constructed to hold out against a serious land attack with heavy artillery.

situated near the south-western extremity of the island, and the part of the coast requiring defence includes not only the whole of the side of the island facing the north-west, but the whole northern extremity, and about a mile of the side facing southeast. The rest of the south-eastern side and the southern extremity, are naturally defended, and may safely be left to take care of themselves.

The form of Alderney has been mentioned. The ground rises from the sea, on the north-western side, in some places by a gradual slope, and in others by a succession of terraces, to a plateau about 250 feet above the sea level. The whole of the coast is rocky; on one side (the west) there is a cliff of irregular angular blocks of granite, fallen away from above, and deposited as a natural talus, reaching about half way up the ancient cliff. On the other side, is a bluff precipice of rock, reaching to the sea, and defended by an outer barrier, or fringe of granite islands. Beyond the heap of detritus on the west side, there is also a fringe of unbroken portions of the granite rising out of the sea.

The talus, just described, extends from the Clonque towards the north-east to the commencement of the new harbour, and renders it impossible to strengthen this part of the island except by coast forts adapted to resist a landing on the dangerous shores of the bays that exist between the Clonque and Touraille forts. Of these bays there are three; the westernmost, Clonque Bay, is between the Clonque and Fort Torgee. It is very rocky, and not deeply indented; nor is the land very approachable from it. The next is the Plat Saline, extending to Fort Doyle, between which and Grosnez is a small bay, called Crabbie. There are sands at low water in these two bays. At Grosnez, the pier commences. On the side of the Plat Saline, nearest Fort Torgee, is a pretty opening communicating with a valley, giving easy access to the interior of the island, and connecting with other valleys opening in the opposite direction, at a point called Tres Vaux, or Three Valleys. These valleys terminate abruptly

at a lofty, vertical cliff.

valleys are scooped is an

The part of the rock out of which these exceedingly rotten granitic vein, readily acted on by the weather. A small stream of water comes down to the western coast, and has been made use of to turn a wheel. Roads communicate from the Plat Saline to the town, which lies above, on the plateau, at a short distance.

A neck of land, near Cape Grosnez, is called the Braye, and gives its name to the next bay-the largest and most important of all, and the one selected for the new harbour.

From the extremity of this headland, on which is a strong fort, the long arm of the western pier or breakwater takes its origin. The distance of this point from the opposite land of the bay, is about 1,200 yards, this being therefore the effective width of the natural bay. The curve is nearly semicircular, but the bottom is rocky and at present shallow. Much blasting and clearing out will therefore be necessary; and owing to the direction taken by the west breakwater, the harbour must always be inconvenient.

The harbour originally projected required the construction of two small breakwaters: one, 900 yards to the east from Cape Grosnez; and another, north-west from Roselle Point, running out 400 yards. These would have enclosed the natural bay.

To enlarge this design (which was originally either too much or too little), it was determined to alter the direction of the west breakwater to east north-east. This has involved a large quantity of work done in water upwards of twenty fathoms deep, and has completely cut across the excellent anchorage that might have been secured by carrying the breakwater from rock to rock. Had this latter work been decided on, a magnificent harbour would have been secured at a comparatively small expense. Nearly a million sterling has now been expended on the 1200 yards of the west breakwater at present carried out. The east breakwater is not yet commenced.

The effect of the breakwater hitherto has been to shelter a