1630 The Zoologist — April, 1869. 



Rough Notes from the Channel Islands. 

 By J. A. Harvie Brown, Esq. 



(Continued from Zool. S. S. 1592). 



On February the 15lh my guide — George Vauden — and I started 

 from the inn, with the intention of exploring the wild coast scenery of 

 the island. First visited the Creux de Derrible, a very fine creux 

 indeed, very much finer than the one before described which I saw 

 in Herm. One side of this creux is nearly 300 feet in perpendicular 

 height, but the other is not nearly so high nor so precipitous ; it has 

 communication with the sea beneath by two lateral openings, and at 

 high tide, with a rough south-west wind blowing, it must be indeed a 

 grand sight to see the great waves come dashing through these 

 narrow passages. We now passed on along the rocky coast to 

 d'Iscart Bay, a rugged, weather-beaten and picturesque bay, with a 

 beautiful wooded valley opening upon it from tlie landward side, and 

 a smooth sandy little bit of bathing beach with an arched rock at one 

 side. Then proceeded to the coupee, where the road connecting 

 Sark and Little Sark runs along the top of a narrow ridge, and is only 

 about seven feet in width, with a nearly perpendicular cliff on one side 

 of 300 feet in neight, and on the other side a steeply sloping bank — 

 about 75 degrees — down to the sea. In a high wind such as was 

 blowing on the day I visited it, it was anything but a pleasant sensa- 

 tion passing along this narrow path. The view of the rock scenery of 

 Little Sark as seen from the northern extremity of the coupee is very 

 fine, and in some respects may be said to resemble a certain view of 

 Kynance Cove, at the liizard in Cornwall. The view from the south 

 end of the coupee, looking northwards, embraces all the line of coast 

 south of the Guliot caves, takes in the Island of Brehon, which is 

 only separated from Sark by a narrow channel of deep water, and 

 beyond, Herm and its north-east shell beach, and the northern and 

 low lying portion of Guernsey. After exploring one or two "queer 

 places" in the rocks we pushed on towards the famous Guliot caves, 

 but on arriving found we could not effect an entrance owing to the 

 tides. We did get into the outer cave, but its wonders (Vauden said) 

 were nothing to be compared with the other and inner cave : never- 

 theless I was sufficiently struck with the forms of marine life which 

 even here completely covered and hid from view every square inch 

 of the sides of the cave. Hundreds and thousands of the curious 



