THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CIIAUSEY. 7 



exposed forms a zone of several leagues in extent. 

 The imagination stands appalled at the idea of the 

 fluid masses which are thus swayed from shore to 

 shore by the attraction of the sun and moon ; and 

 although a four months' sojourn on the sea-coast 

 familiarised me with this phenomenon, it in no 

 degree tended to diminish the admiration which 

 it awakened in my mind on the first day of my 

 arrival. 



The ancients characterised the land as their Alma 

 parens ; yet how much more worthy does the ocean 

 seem of this title ! The dweller on the earth must 

 sow the seed, plant trees, or turn the soil with his 

 plough before he can gather in the grain that is to 

 nourish him, or pluck the fruit that is to quench his 

 thirst. Months, nay years, may pass before his 

 labours will be recompensed, and perhaps at the 

 very moment when he is about to reap the reward 

 of his toil, a blast of wind, or a hail-storm, comes 

 utterly to destroy his hopes. The ocean demands no 

 such protracted waiting, and gives birth to no such 

 painful disappointments. The tide falls ! to work ! 

 to work ! both young and old ! there is room for all, 

 and labour proportioned to every age and to every 

 degree of strength. The men and their sturdy help- 

 mates, spade in hand, turn up the sand, which has 



coast extremely dangerous by tending to the formation of shifting 

 sands. The mountain itself is merely a large granite rock measuring 

 about 1600 yards in circumference at the base, and which rises to 

 a height of between 400 and 500 feet. The summit is entirely 

 covered with the castle which once played a prominent part in the 

 wars of the Middle Ages ; but is now merely employed as a state 

 prison. 



B 4 



