THE ISLE OF USHANT, ETC. 307 



and reefs — many of the latter being just awash or 

 partially submerged. This archipelago culminates in 

 the comparatively large island of Ouessant, which we 

 call Ushant. Through the numerous straits and 

 channels, with which the group abounds, a tide rushes 

 at the rate of fourteen knots an hour, rendering the 

 surface of the sea for many miles a series of broad 

 rapids and eddies, resembling the waters of a mighty 

 river rather than those of the ocean. Add to this the 

 remarkably rugged outlines of the stacks and many of 

 the islets, and the quaintness that marks the little 

 out-of- the- world community that dwells upon the island 

 of Molene, and we have scenes which it would not be 

 easy to match elsewhere in European waters. 



The birds seen on the voyage were Manx Shear- 

 waters, Cormorants, Shags, Herring-Gulls, Lesser and 

 Greater Black-backed Gulls, Sandwich and Lesser 

 Terns ; and among migrants a Common Sandpiper and 

 an Osprey. 



A three-hours' run brought us to Ushant, the most 

 westerly land of France, situated 12 miles from the 

 nearest point of the mainland. This island is irregular 

 in outline, for it throws out, as it were, two long parallel 

 arms to the south-west, which enclose the deep Baie de 

 Porspaul ; while there are minor promontories to the 

 north-east, north, and north-west. It is about 3|- square 

 miles in area, and does not present any remarkable 

 physical features excepting the wonderful rock-scenery 

 on the west coast, of which more anon. Cliffs face the 

 sea on all sides except the south-west, and these attain 

 their maximum height of 2 1 1 ft. in the north. The 

 surface of the island has a parched and arid appearance, 

 due to its herbage being closely cropped by the cattle 



