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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



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Photograph by Alfred Dobree 

 AN OLD GUERNSEY PARMER AND HIS WIFE WITH A NATURE-GROWN HAY-FORK 



Herm is remarkable for two shell 

 beaches, of which even the shingle is 

 composed of minute particles of shell, 

 and is unequaled on the British coasts 

 for the profusion, variety, and rarity of 

 the species there to be found. The last 

 tenant of the island successfully intro- 

 duced the small species of kangaroo 

 called wallaby. 



Iu each island still lingers the old 

 '"patois," a survival of the French, which 

 was once the court language of England 

 as well as of France, while even now 

 there remains a certain individuality 

 about the thoroughbred Channel Islander. 

 To the world in general he asserts him- 

 self an Englishman, but in the presence 

 of the English he boasts of being a Jer- 

 seyman or a Guernseyman. 



Acquaintance proves that each island 

 has its own fauna and flora, its own 

 group of family names. 



The coasts present every variety of 

 sea scenery — granite cliffs which even at 

 the lowest tide stand fathoms deep in 



ever-heaving water ; long reaches of sand 

 that, when the tide is out, stretch away 

 for nearly a mile below high- water mark ; 

 little creeks where the sand is dotted 

 with black, serrated reefs half covered 

 with seaweed at the ebb and all but cov- 

 ered by the foam of the waves as they 

 fret themselves into yeast-like spray at 

 the flow. Above are cliffs, golden with 

 gorse, starred with marguerites, rose and 

 blue with campions, foxgloves, and blue- 

 bells ; intersected with tiny valleys, "as if 

 God's finger touched, but did not press." 



On the horizon one sees the outline of 

 the other islands, dim and soft through 

 the summer haze, clear and sharp before 

 the coming rain ; beyond these the line of 

 the French coast, and all around a sea. 

 indescribably blue in the sunshine, gray 

 and purple and cruel under the clouds. 



Above all, each island is crowded with 

 associations. They retain the traditions 

 of old gods, the remembrances of an- 

 cient men. 



INDEX FOR JANUARY-JUNE, 1920, VOLUME READY 

 Index tor Volume XXXYII (January-June iqjol will be mailed to members upon request 



