THE ZooLogisT—FEBRUARY, 1875. 4311 
difficulties about hotel accommodation, and merely suggest to any 
fellow naturalist who wishes to visit the island, the desirability of 
securing his apartments by letter beforehand. I made another 
mistake. On the first day of my arrival I took a boat from the 
harbour, and was mortified, after an hour or so rowing and sailing, 
to find that I had misjudged the time of low tide, for when I reached 
the north-west side of the island, the caves were full of water. So 
the first day’s labour was lost. I improved on the second day, 
and went by way of the road, which is most economical both 
as to time and money, for half an hours walking from the 
harbour will suffice to reach them, and a boat is not necessary. 
Let me not in the least be supposed to wish to prevent custom from 
coming to the worthy boatmen of Sark, whose hardiness, civility 
and attention, have long been conspicuous. I merely mention, for 
the benefit of fellow naturalists, that the road is the best way of 
reaching the caverns. The descent from the cliff, which is at least 
three hundred feet high, is somewhat difficult to one unaccustomed 
to climbing, as the rock is steep and the path stony, narrow and 
slippery, but I did not hear of any accidents ever having taken place. 
There is a local legend that one Juan Rodriguez, a Spaniard, was 
last seen alive on an abrupt part of the rock about two-thirds of the 
way down, from whence it is supposed that he committed suicide 
by leaping over. Hence the spot is termed Sault de Jehan— 
“John’s Leap.” At this point there are two ways of reaching the 
shore, the one very precipitous and over rocks covered with slimy 
Fucus, which can only be traversed when the water is out; the other, 
the most usual route, is through the first cavern, or “ Chimney,” as it 
is termed, a long diagonal aperture filled with magnificent boulders 
fallen from the main rock and piled together in wild grandeur. 
Professor Ansted says one must visit Sark to know what water will 
do with granite! Speaking of the origin of these and neighbouring 
caverns, he says:— The existence of a fissure in hard rock filled 
at one time with soft mineral, is the elementary condition. The 
result is seen in the removal of the soft mineral by the undermining 
of the sea—the falling in of the unsupported roof, and the rolling 
about in sea-water of the angular fragments that fall, become 
rounded, are broken into pebbles, and finally are ground into 
sand.” Over some of the boulders, and under others in this 
“chimney” the naturalist cautiously picks his way, his mouth 
watering at the sight of sundry fine specimens of the sea spleenwort 
