THE CHAXXEL ISLAXDS 



161 



Vacquerie described it when on a visit to 

 Victor Hugo, who was then living in the 

 islands as" an exile from France. 



It was during the great Frenchman's 

 residence in Guernsey that he wrote 

 much of his poetry and three of his best- 

 known novels — "Les Miserables," "The 

 Man Who Laughs," "The Toilers of the 

 Sea." In commemoration of his exile 

 the French nation brought over and 

 erected a statue to his memory in July, 

 1914. 



The lesser islands, Alderney, Sark, 

 Herm, and Jethou, are comprised in the 

 bailiwick of Guernsey. 



Alderney, described by Napoleon as 

 the shield of England, was considered, 

 in the days before aircraft, submarines, 

 and long-range guns had revolutionized 

 warfare, to be the key of the channel. 

 Consequently, during the Napoleonic 

 wars, forts were erected here by the Brit- 

 ish Government at vast expense. 



Rugged and inhospitable as the island 

 looks to the wayfarer, it has a savage, 

 untamed beauty denied to the other 

 islands. It is surrounded by the most 

 dangerous currents and the wildest seas 

 in the English Channel. 



Seven miles west of Alderney lie the 

 famous Casquet rocks, "where the car- 

 cases of many a tall ship lie buried." In 

 spite of many petitions and numberless 

 tragedies, it was not until 1723 that the 

 British Government established a beacon 

 light on these dangerous rocks ; and then 

 it was but a coal fire burning upon an 

 armorer's forge and kept alight by bel- 

 lows. 



Naturally, the fiercer the gale the more 

 the light was extinguished by the spray, 

 and the toll of ships so increased that in 

 1779 this primitive appliance was super- 

 seded by an oil light in a copper lantern. 

 Nowadays there is a fog-signal station 

 and a lighthouse with a brilliant revolv- 

 ing light. 



SARK THE EPITOME OE CHANNEL 

 ISLANDS BEAUTY 



No one can claim to have seen the 

 Channel Islands until he has seen Sark, 

 which is an epitome of the beauty of 

 them all. It contains the wooded valleys 

 of Jersey, the brilliant lichen-covered 

 cliffs of Guernsey, and its own carpet of 



■ -!Ll±je&. 



Photograph by G. A. Piquet 



A GORGE MORE THAN IOO EEET DEEP, IN 

 THE CLJPES AT CRABBE : JERSEY 



Crabbe is a small, almost circular cove, sur- 

 rounded by very steep cliffs. It is one of the 

 wildest and most desolate places on the north- 

 west coast of the island. This gorge has been 

 caused by the erosion of a vein of greenstone 

 in the granite. 



wild flowers and sea-anemones, while the 

 natural magic of its beauty is supple- 

 mented, to the initiate, by the magic- 

 working powers of some of the old in- 

 habitants. 



Great Sark is connected with little 

 Sark by "one sheer thread of narrowing 

 precipice" called the Coupee. The island 

 is held from the Crown by feudal right. 

 and its Seigneur, who presides over the 

 local court with the help of his senechal, 

 his prevot, and his greffier, enjoys auto- 

 cratic powers unknown elsewhere in Eu- 

 rope. 



The two remaining islands of the archi- 

 pelago are Herm and Jethou, which lie 

 between Sark and Guernsey. They be- 

 long to the Crown, having gone through 

 many vicissitudes and having passed 

 through a great variety of hands. 



