THE BAY OF BISCAY. 159 



coasts of the Channel, which perhaps are exceptional 

 in this respect, had spoiled me for the Bay of Biscay. 

 Guettary then had become my head-quarters for the 

 time being. Sometimes I explored the neighbour- 

 hood, intent on zoological investigations ; at other 

 times I visited the cliffs of Bidar, provided with a 

 large canvas bag, which was very soon filled with 

 vegetable treasures, or with some fossil molluscs or 

 zoophytes, intended for the Museum of the Jardin 

 des Plantes. On several occasions I extended my 

 excursions as far as the fort of the Socoa, which is 

 situated at the southern extremity of Saint-Jean-de- 

 Luz, and, the better to profit by my distant explora- 

 tions, I usually carried with me a double supply of 

 collecting apparatus. On these occasions I was 

 equipped somewhat after the Robinson Crusoe 

 fashion. At my right shoulder hung a bag for 

 fossils ; over my left arm was suspended a long tin 

 box intended to receive large animals. My hammer 

 was passed through a belt somewhat in the fashion of 

 a poignard, whilst my tubes and bottles, whose wide 

 mouths protruded from all my pockets, personated 

 inoffensive cartridge boxes, or very harmless pistols. 

 My double pickaxe with its strong ash handle com- 

 pleted my strange equipment, and no doubt made 

 me appear a most singular object ; indeed the fisher- 

 men and labourers, on seeing me pass, regarded me 

 with a look of the most intense curiosity, whilst more 

 than once I was pursued by the entire juvenile po- 

 pulation of Saint- Jean- de-Luz. 



This town, which is the last on this frontier of 

 France, has more than one claim to the notice of the 



