LIHOU. 
HE islet of Lihou is situated off Lerée Point, on the west coast 
of Guernsey, with which it is connected by a rough, winding 
causeway nearly halfa milein length. This causeway is covered 
by the sea, except at low water, so that the crossing is not practicable 
at all hours, or in every kind of weather: during heavy gales no 
communication with the outer world is possible. The island is 
about a third of a mile long, and somewhat rectangular in shape, 
with projecting angles on the side nearest Guernsey. Most of it 
consists of grass-land or sandy banks covered with fine turf, inter- 
spersed here and there with large masses or clusters of rock: on 
the western side these rocks rise to a height of a hundred feet 
above sea level, and from certain points present picturesque bits of 
scenery. 
There is a substantially built farmhouse and out-buildings on the 
island, and several plots of cultivated ground: but farming opera- 
tions are carried on under difficulties, and are probably not very 
remunerative. Some years ago this building was used as an iodine 
manufactory, and the machinery and fixtures are said to be still in 
good working order. A profitable trade used to be carried on in 
Guernsey half a century ago in the manufacture of iodine, the sea- 
weed of the Channel Islands being, in the opinion of experts, 
exceptionally rich in that product; but this branch of industry has 
for some reason not been extensively developed, although there is 
little danger of exhausting the supply of raw material. This little 
islet is still, however, the chief station in Guernsey for collecting and 
burning seaweed. locally called varerh or vraic, from the soluble ash 
of which iodine is obtained. 
In spite of its loneliness and exposure there is much that is 
interesting about Lihou from an antiquarian standpoint. It is the 
only spot in the Channel Islands where there are ruins of monastic 
buildings having some architectural pretensions, and the remains are 
still visible of a chapel dating as far back as the beginning of the 
twelfth century. But the hand of the spoiler has been at work even 
in this desolate spot. Much of what remained of the ancient chapel 
at the early part of the century was utilised for the construction of 
the farmhouse or the outbuildings behind it. Flint arrowheads, and 
other relics of a prehistoric age, have been found here from time to 
time ; and it was in searching for some of these a few years ago 
