Names of the principal islands and groups of rocks and shoals.

In this list, the names of all those islands that are regularly inhabited are indicated by a star (*). Several of the others are occasionally visited during summer, either for herbage or as fishing stations, and on them are huts or other buildings. The most important of them are the Burhou larger island, the 'Maitresse Ile' of the Minquiers, some of the larger of the Ecrehou rocks, and some of the Chaussey islands. On the Ecrehou rocks are remains of buildings of great antiquity, said to be constructed of stone brought from the main land of France.

In addition to this long list of names, each of which represents a group, and often a very numerous group of rocks, there are many smaller groups, and a multitude, almost countless, of detached rocks, either visible at some time of tide, or dangerous to navigation from the sea breaking over them. Close to the French shore, both of Brittany and Normandy, but especially the former, the rocks and shoals are almost too numerous to be marked in any chart.

A very important chain of light-houses indicates, by a line of

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. The 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.

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