THE ARCHIPELAGO OF BREHAT. 73 



attacks, a broad causeway was thrown up between 

 the islands under his directions, and a communica- 

 tion thus secured between the two during all con- 

 ditions of the tide. The bay which separates these 

 two northern and southern portions is a muddy 

 basin tolerably well sheltered from the north wind, 

 and called La Corderie. The sailors however ap- 

 pear with good reason to prefer Port Clos, a little 

 bay entering the most southern shore of the island 

 and facing the coast of Brittany. Here the land, 

 after rising in a gradual slope towards the sea, appears 

 suddenly to open and separate into two rugged pro- 

 montories, which, curving inwards at their extreme 

 points, serve as a protecting breastwork to the 

 circular basin enclosed within their area. So 

 sheltered is this bay, that during the high tides of 

 the equinoxes, and in heavy gales, when the whole 

 ocean seems to be raging against the island, which 

 it encircles in one belt of white foam, the middle of 

 Port Clos is scarcely rippled by the waves which its 

 natural dykes throw back on either side of it. 



With the exception of these and a few other spots, 

 where small craft might find safe anchorage, the 

 entire circuit of the island presented nothing but a 

 steep rocky coast, where it was difficult even for 

 mere sloops to make a landing. Granite occurs here 

 in every kind of form and variety, associated with 

 several species of the neighbouring rocks. Pegmatite, 

 which by its decomposition yields kaolin, occurs 

 either in slight veins intersecting each other in all 

 directions, or in masses of a beautiful red colour and 

 crystallised in large grains. Other veins of syenite 



