TilE COASTS OF SAINTONGE. 273 



ficial canal, nothing is to be seen but a bed of black 

 or yellow mud, which extends from the highest zones 

 far below the limits of the lowest tides. There are 

 even some uncovered spots, where one would have 

 imagined that the waves would have swept every- 

 thing away, yet here the mud is more than a foot 

 deep, and covers with its thick mantle both sands 

 and rocks, while it fills up every fissure and opening. 

 The slightest agitation is sufficient to move the semi- 

 fluid stratum, and indeed along the whole length of 

 the coasts the water is almost always turbid, the 

 slightest breeze of wind being sufficient to render it 

 thick and to give it an appearance almost of solidity. 

 Farther off land, the sea, without being much clearer, 

 preserves something of its natural colour. Its blue, 

 blending with the yellow of the mud, often changes 

 into a fine green colour. At certain moments when 

 the isolated clouds marble the ocean with their 

 shadows, and a light breeze breaks the water into 

 furrows, the play of the light upon the surface of the 

 waves produces a strange illusion. It almost seems 

 as if you were looking at a vast plain, the nearest 

 portions of which consisted of freshly cut corn fields 

 beyond which a rich tract of fresh meadows seemed 

 to stretch to the very horizon. 



Several causes combine to produce this accumu- 

 lation of earthy particles in the waters of the Sain- 

 tonge. From north to south, from Point Aiguillon 

 to Point Fouras, the islands of Re, Aix, and Oleron 

 form as it were a kind of interrupted dyke, which 

 runs along the shore, and is separated from it by an 

 irregular canal, which is very much contracted towards 



VOL. II. T 



