THE AECHIPELAGO OF BREHAT. 125 



brave them by its impassibility. The north-west 

 wind roars round the towers, darkening its thick 

 glass windows with torrents of rain and drifts of 

 snow and haih These impetuous blasts bear along 

 with them from the far-spread ocean colossal waves, 

 whose crests not unfrequently reach the first gallery, 

 but these fluid masses slide away from the round and 

 polished surfaces of the granite, which leave tliem no 

 points of adhesion, and darting their long lines of 

 foam above the cupola, they break with thundering 

 roar against the rocks of Stallio-Bras, or the boulders 

 of Sillon. The tower supports these terrific assaults 

 without injury, although it bends, as if in homage, 

 before the might of its foes. I was assured by the 

 keepers, that during a violent storm, the oil in the 

 lamps of the highest rooms, presents a variation of 

 level exceeding an inch, which would lead us to 

 assume that the summit of the tower describes an 

 arc of about a yard in extent. This very flexibility 

 seems, however, in itself to be a proof of durability. 

 At all events we meet with similar conditions in 

 several monuments which for ages have braved the 

 inclemency of recurring seasons. The spire of 

 Strasburg Cathedral, in particular, bends its long 

 ogives and slender pinnacles beneath the force of the 

 winds, while the cross on its summit gently oscillates 

 at an elevation of more than 450 feet above the 

 ground. 



To construct a monument on these rocks, which 

 seemed the very focus of all the storms which raged 

 on that part of our coasts, was like building an edifice 

 in the open sea. Such a project must indeed have 



