THE ARCHIPELAGO OF BREHAT. 69 



On leaving Saint-Brieuc, the road descends into a 

 narrow and deep gully. The schistous character 

 of its mountain sides was at once discernible by the 

 irregularity of their profile, which differs so essen- 

 tially from the sharply-cut outline of granite for- 

 mations or the rounded forms characterising sand- 

 stone and limestone districts. But, notwithstanding 

 the abrupt and wild appearance of the country through 

 which we passed, it presented the greatest possible 

 attractions to me, from the recollections it awakened 

 in my mind of the valleys of the Cevennes, amongst 

 which I spent my early childhood. There were the 

 same sharply defined mountains, with their acutely 

 cut angles and salient lines, the same stunted but 

 hardy vegetation, drawing a scanty subsistence from 

 among the debris of rocks, which rise on every side 

 in slender pyramids, wreathed with long spine-clad 

 festoons of brambles interspersed with tufts of 

 waving furze. Here, near every brightly gushing 

 mountain rivulet, were the same patches of verdure, 

 clothing the steep hill -side with a soft velvety carpet 

 of grass, where even the cattle could scarcely keep 

 their footing on their steep and slippery pasture 

 ground. By the way-side, in the hollows of the 

 rocks, at the foot of the trees, I saw the same plants 

 and flowers which I had so often gathered when 

 a child. To complete the resemblance, a winding 

 brook pursued its course through the valley. The 

 clear waters leapt over the pebbles, broke in foam 

 against the larger stones, and fell in bright cascades 

 from the embankments which had been thrown up 

 to collect a larger body of water to turn some huge 



F 3 



