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CHAP. VIII. 



THE BAY OF BISCAY. 

 SAINT SEBASTIAN. 



The road leading from Saint- Jean-de-Luz to Saint Sebastian ; the 

 Bidassoa ; the Isle of Pheasants. Saint Sebastian. The Basques: 

 their claims as a race ; their probable origin ; their fueros ; their 

 ethnological characters. The Teredo ; its mode of reproduction ; 

 means of preserving wood from its attacks. Embryological 

 studies ; nature of germs ; theories of evolution, of accolement and 

 of epigenesis ; distinct life of germs. Development of the 

 Hermella and the Teredo. Metamorphoses. General idea of life. 



TOWARDS the close of autumn, I left the French 

 Basque territory on my way to Spain. On leaving 

 Saint- Jean-de-Luz the road winds among rich and 

 smiling hills, passing here and there some village, 

 similar to Guettary, or some detached house whose 

 white walls and red shutters gleamed from, the midst 

 of the verdure with which they are usually surrounded. 

 After gradually ascending, the traveller finds himself 

 suddenly on the top of a long and rapid slope, from 

 whence he sees a lovely valley, which contracts 

 towards the left and is lost on the horizon amid the 

 passes of the Pyrenees, whilst to the right it widens 

 considerably and then gradually slopes towards the 

 sea between Point Saint Anne and Cape Figuier. 

 The Bidassoa and the Isle of Pheasants are at his 

 feet, recalling the memory of names which are alike 



