9o A Corner of Brittany. 
mate, its southern flpra, its fertile lands, its hardy fishermen with their 
original costumes, its picturesque homes, and its beautiful church. 
Of more importance than all to the naturalist, it attracts him as the 
site of one of the most interesting of all those institutions for the 
study on the sea-shore of marine animals, the Laboratoire Exper- 
imentale et Generale, founded by Prof. Lacaze-Duthiers. It is this 
establishment which turned me to this distant corner of Finisterre, 
where I was permitted to spend two of the most charming months of 
a summer's vacation in Europe. 
Roscoff is situated on the confines of Brittany, on a peninsula 
which juts out into the English channel, about opposite Plymouth 
in England. Away from beaten lines of travel it is unaffected 
by the changes which are being made in the larger cities about it, and 
remains, as it was when Mary Stuart landed on its shore, a veritable 
survival of the old Brittany of three centuries ago. Artists know it, 
and naturalists have long studied the rich life which peoples its coast 
and the waters which bathe its shores. Lovers of nature find there a 
sea most savage, and cliffs most rugged and picturesque. The blue 
sky of the Mediterranean and the beautiful water ever chang- 
ing and never tranquil are here. Its islands are eroded by the 
ocean into fantastic shapes so that their contours rival our own 
"Garden of the Gods" in their grotesque shapes. The whole ap- 
pearance of the coast, changed in a few hours by the great tides, the 
wonderful scenery on all sides, these are some of the beauties of 
nature which once seen retain the visitor in this interesting place 
day after day and week after week. 
The place is situated on a small peninsula, the main street extend- 
ing along the sea, and terminating at either end on the coast. Near 
one end of this street there rises a bald cliff capped by an ancient 
chapel of Sainte Barbe and a small fortress called the Bloson. At the 
other end this road broadens and opens into a place called the Vil 
upon the sides of which arise the Hotel du Bains Mer, the church, 
and the Marine Laboratory. On either side the main street of the 
town is lined with picturesque old houses, many of which date three 
centuries back, bearing the stamp of an old civilization. Sniall 
side passages lead to the shore on one side of the street, while on 
the other are narrow passage ways leading into tortuous alleys which 
extend out into the cultivated fields. Midway in the course of the 
main street, between the chapel of Sainte Barbe and the Vil or 
place of the church, is the port, an artificial structure, forming a 
