28 EAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



is also disposed of at Paris. This branch of com- 

 merce brings in about eight hundred francs a head 

 to the Blainville women, or nearly eight thousand 

 francs in all. 



I should have found considerable difficulty in 

 exploring the extreme points of the archipelago had 

 I not met with one of the Blainville fishermen, who 

 undertook to serve as my gondolier. This man, 

 Master Hyacinthe Forcel, was a very worthy person, 

 and under his guidance I was enabled safely to ex- 

 plore all the lagoons of my rocky Venice. Tall of 

 stature and of athletic strength, he joined to these 

 advantages, which are so invaluable in his profession, 

 an amount of intelligence very rare in one of his 

 class, while his courage Avas equal to any emergency. 

 Always ready to expose his life to save that of others, 

 he had rescued a number of persons from certain 

 death, without having ever claimed the recompense 

 which the State awards in these cases ; but at length 

 one of these acts of devoted heroism was witnessed 

 by a Commissioner of Marine, who took care that 

 this brave mariner should receive the medal to which 

 he had so many claims. 



The stone-cutters form the second caste, and com- 

 pose the most considerable portion of the inhabitants 

 of Chausey. The great works which, for the last 

 few years, have been in the course of erection at 

 Granville and St. Malo, have brought the granite 

 of the archipelago into great demand ; indeed, the 

 paving-stones of the trottoirs of Paris have chiefly 

 been obtained of late years from the same locality. 

 During my stay the numbers of these quarry men 



