AT ST. MALO. 21 



whose roar is now only heard from a distance. 

 And now, but a few hours later, how changed the 

 scene ! The town is almost entirely surrounded by 

 the sea, the waves of which are beating round the 

 walls, breaking at their feet, and throwing the 

 spray sometimes to their very top. The only com- 

 munication with the land is now afforded by a 

 long causeway, which you see at once to be the 

 work of man, and which is no broader than the road 

 which runs along it. On the side of this causeway 

 towards the open sea, the rolling surge is striving 

 against the barrier which meets it, dashing up in 

 breakers thirty or forty feet high, and drenching 

 with spray the wanderer who may tarry on the 

 road. The many cliffs which had been remarked 

 before are now hidden under water, all but a few 

 of the highest points of rocks, which you could have 

 reached on foot before, but which now r are islands 

 in the sea. The other side too of the mole is also 

 washed by the sea. But here the fury of the waves is 

 less, for it has been spent upon all the rocks and islets 

 without ; and as the flood has here run far up into 

 the land — having had besides, after passing between 

 the cliffs, to find its way around the town — it 

 retains but little of its former force. Here is the 

 harbour of St. Malo, quite dry at low water, 

 and at flood-tide a great lake roomy enough for 

 several thousand vessels, which, however, you will 

 not see within it. 



