THE ARCHIPELAGO OF CHAUSEY. 11 



compelled to substitute for it a chair, which required 

 to be cleared for the purpose. 



As soon as my preliminary arrangements were 

 completed, I set forth to reconnoitre the territory 

 which I intended to explore in the cause of zoology. 

 The farm-house in which I was domiciled was built 

 on the side of a small arm of the sea, called the 

 Sound of Chausey. It consisted of two wings, one of 

 which contained the stables, and apartments for the 

 servants and men on the farm ; the other was occu- 

 pied by the baking-house, the manager's room, and 

 the apartments reserved for the use of the proprietor. 

 This double house was built of native granite, and 

 constituted the capital of the archipelago ; and the 

 employes, who represented the aristocracy of the 

 community, were so thoroughly sensible of their own 

 importance that they had very little intercourse 

 with the rest of the inhabitants. 



Leaving the farm- buildings, I took the first path 

 which presented itself, and crossed a marshy common, 

 the favourite resort of the wild geese and ducks, 

 which come in winter to breed on these inaccessible 

 shores. A few paces further on a narrow and sandy 

 isthmus led me to the foot of Gros Mont, the highest 

 mountain of the archipelago, and from its elevated 

 summit I could embrace in one glance all that the 

 horizon encompassed. On every side of me was 

 spread the ocean, which in the west was bounded 

 only by the sky. To the south the view terminated 

 with the coasts of Brittany, which scarcely rose 

 above the line of the waves. Towards the east I 

 could clearly distinguish the rugged shores of Nor- 



