32 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



panions, with whom he was accustomed to start 

 some philosophical discussion whenever he happened 

 to be tired of singing. I used to hear these singular 

 debates from my room, and I was frequently amused 

 at the ingenuity and good sense shown by these 

 simple workmen in the course of their arguments. 



Thus the Norman and Breton races meet at 

 Chausey, displaying a peculiarity of disposition and 

 manners which separates them quite as thoroughly 

 as the difference in their occupations. The stone- 

 cutters lead nearly the same kind of life as the day- 

 labourers of our large towns ; almost all of them 

 spend Sunday in drinking and keep Monday as a 

 holiday. The fishermen are alike sober and indus- 

 trious, whilst the barilla-collectors seem, by their 

 coarse and brutal habits, to justify the proverbial 

 expression, " bete comme un barilleur" While the 

 summer lasts, the narrow and sloping surface of 

 Grande-He is enlivened by the presence of nearly two 

 hundred persons. Night and morning the Blainville 

 women resort to the sands of the archipelago, whilst 

 the men, detaching their boats from the shore, row 

 off in different directions to examine their lobster 

 pots. The fires of the barilla-burners throw up their 

 long columns of whitish smoke, or gleam through the 

 darkness of night like so many beacon-lights. From 

 morning till evening the noise of the pickaxe and 

 hammer resounds from the depths of the quarries 

 and the sides of the hills, while, from time to time, 

 the banks re-echo with the rumbling crash produced 

 by the blasting of the rock. But on the first ap- 

 pearance of the equinoctial rains of autumn, at the 



