GUERNSEY GRANITE.

503 the average of Cornish material. A practical test of the value of this material was obtained several years ago on the road leading to the East and West India Docks, in London, where, after seventeen months of the hardest trial, the loss per superficial foot was from four to five pounds, while good Dartmoor granite lost 12 lbs., and Aberdeen blue granite 143 lbs. There is no doubt of the excellence of the material, and the cost is not excessive.

Some of the other properties of the Guernsey syenite render it especially valuable for the purposes for which it is chiefly used in London, Portsmouth, and other large towns, where there is much heavy traffic. Composed of crystals of felspar and hornblende bedded in hard quartz, these crystals and the quartz being all of different hardness, the various parts of the stone become differently worn by the same traffic, and the surface thus remains rough. All the ingredients being in a state little decomposable by any exposure to which they are liable, the amount of weathering is strictly confined to the parts removed by mechanical abrasion; this not being assisted, as in most granites, by a chemical action increasing with the wear. The Grooby cubes from Leicestershire (near Mount Sorrel), are the only stones that compete with the Guernsey stone. Both are of syenite, and each has properties rendering it best adapted for certain kinds of wear. The Guernsey is the best for extreme and incessant wear.

Besides the ordinary cubes and pitchers for paving, a considerable quantity of granite is cut and sold for kerbs, and not a little of the more ornamental varieties is valuable for architectural purposes. The stone is generally small grained, and has numerous, natural backs. It can, however, be obtained in blocks of considerable size. There have been, in all, upwards of fifty large quarries opened, but few are in actual exploitation at present for the supply of London. A large quantity of the smaller stone and chippings is valuable.

Besides the quarries opened for road metal, there are several on the other side, and on the north of the island, all near L'Ancresse, where good granite is obtained for monumental purposes only. This is not so hard or tough, and is of different colours.

The stone business of the island is conducted entirely at St. Sampson's, and has very greatly increased during the last twenty years. In the year 1840, the number of ships leaving the harbour of St. Sampson was 369, carrying about 35,000 tons of stone. In 1851, before the present harbour dues had been raised and the harbour improved, there were already 586 vessels, carrying 82,593 tons of stone, while in the year 1860, the number of vessels was 642, and the stone carried was 122,997 tons. The demand for the stone is very large and increasing; and during the past year, the quantity exported has been very much greater than in 1860. As many as 731 vessels entered and left the harbour of St. Sampson in 1861, carrying stone to the amount of 142,866 tons. Several thousand tons were also shipped from St. Peter's Port, chiefly in steam-boats.

The methods of quarrying differ little from those adopted elsewhere. A sketch of one of the quarries is given in the next page, from which the reader may judge of their picturesque appearance. They are worked generally below the water line, so as to require pumping apparatus, the power being supplied by windmills. The granite is removed by blasting; and as it abounds with natural backs, this is conducted with economy, large pieces being often removed at one blast. The quarries are not far from the shipping-place.

In Jersey, pink syenite of great beauty is quarried at Mont Mado, behind Bonne Nuit Bay. The vein of granite is not more than about 100 feet wide, and the walls are very rotten; but the stone itself, at a small depth, is hard and tough. It works into large blocks with very little waste, and is characterised by strong north and south joints dipping west, and cross joints hanging

JERSEY AND HERM GRANITES.

505

east north east and west south west. Although not exported at present, there is a fair demand for this stone at St. Helier's and elsewhere in the island.

Several other quarries are worked on the cliffs at no great distance from Mont Mado, apparently on a continuation of the same vein. The stone, however, differs a little in colour.

The Herm syenite resembles that of granite, and some of it is certainly of excellent quality. It has been in former times. rather largely exported, but probably without quarrying, only the weathered blocks near the coast being taken. Of late years regular quarrying operations have been more than once commenced. The steps of the Duke of York's column, in Waterloo Place, London, are of this material, and have worn well. There are no works carried on there at present.

The Chaussey granite is somewhat extensively quarried, and the quality is excellent, the grain being fine and the colour good. Much of it is used at Granville, and it is carried into the interior.

Vegetables and Fruit.

Potatoes are extensively grown in all the principal Channel Islands for the London market, and the quantity sent in the early part of the season is almost incredible. As much as 23,000 bushels (of sixty pounds) were taken over, some years ago, in one season, from Alderney alone, by a single trading vessel, other vessels also carrying large quantities; but the population of the island has increased so largely, and the produce of the potato has become so diminished, that there is no longer this excess of food. Early potatoes are grown under very favourable circumstances in Jersey and Guernsey, chiefly in sheltered places. These are ready for the table nearly three weeks in advance of those grown in Cornwall, and are readily sold for prices varying from one shilling to one shilling and sixpence per pound.

In ordinary years, from three to five thousand tons of potatoes are imported into Jersey, and about half that quantity into Guernsey. These consist of French potatoes for winter use. The export of potatoes from Jersey is very slightly less than the import, amounting in 1861 to about 3,000 tons; but owing to the early crop being exported at a very high price, and the French potatoes introduced when the price is lowest, the balance of profit is largely in favour of the island.

It has already been stated that grapes and pears form important articles of export from Jersey and Guernsey. The growth of grapes is especially remarkable, and is becoming more so every year, almost every house in both islands having its conservatory, and a large proportion of them assisting to supply the market. From Jersey, in an ordinary year, thirty tons are sent away, and from Guernsey more than nine tons. There seems hardly any limit to this source of industry, the grapes ripening perfectly, without artificial heat, at a somewhat earlier period than in England. In ordinary years, the cutting sea

VEGETABLES AND FRUIT.

507

son commences early in August, and by the end of September most of the houses have been cleared. It is worthy of remark that so short a time as ten years ago, the demand for the island grapes was so small in Guernsey that a speculator failed to sell a moderate crop of 500 lbs. weight. In 1855, the export had arisen to 2 tons; in 1856, to 3 tons; in 1859, to 6 tons; and in 1861, to 9 tons.

The trade in pears—an out-door crop-is necessarily dependant on the season. The quantity exported is, however, always very large, both from Jersey and Guernsey. In the year 1859, a favourable year, nearly 10,000 bushels were sold from Jersey only, while, in the following year, less than 3,000 could be procured. From Guernsey, about 10,000 fine Chaumontel pears and about 3,000 bushels of common fruit may be regarded as the average. The fine pears are sold by the hundred, and frequently realise very large prices. Five pounds sterling per hundred in the island is not an unusual price for pears averaging twelve ounces each. The smaller fruit are sold by the bushel, and are much cheaper.

Apples were formerly a much larger crop in Jersey than they have lately been, many orchards having been destroyed to make room for other produce. About 150,000 bushels of fruit and 100,000 gallons of cider may be regarded as more than an average yield. Few apples are exported from Guernsey.

On the whole, it may be stated that upwards of 20,000 bushels of table fruit of all kinds (grapes, pears, apples, apricots, peaches and plums) annually leave Jersey for London or Paris. Probably about half that quantity is sent from Guernsey. The other islands can hardly be said to export fruit.

Besides vegetables and fruit, nearly a hundred thousand pounds of fresh butter are annually exported from Jersey, and a corresponding quantity from Guernsey. Some thousand tons of butter and several million eggs also pass through Jersey on their way to England.