ON SOME GUERNSEY CAYES 



BY CECIL R. P, ANDREWS, M.A. 



In my visits to the Channel Islands, I have been much 

 struck by the different treatment which the coasts of Sark 

 and Guernsey receive at the hands of the general public. 

 Almost every visitor to the former island explores the caves, 

 and becomes acquainted with every part of the coast, taking 

 boat to the less accessible spots. In Guernsey, people seem 

 to confine themselves to the bays, and it is the rarest thing 

 in the world to meet anyone scrambling on the rocks at the 

 foot of the cliffs. A friend of mine, who was staying in 

 Sark, and was eloquently upholding the superiority of that 

 island, assured me that a Guernseyman staying in his hotel 

 had told him that there was only one cave in Guernsey, 

 and that was a dirty one, not worth exploring. I was 

 considerably surprised at this, but I was far more surprised 

 to find it stated, in Professor Ansted's History of the 

 Channel Islands, that the cave in Divette Bay was the 

 finest in the island after the Creux Mahie. The length of 

 the Divette cave is only some 50 or 60 feet ; though the 

 rocks at the entrance are remarkably massive and striking. 



The caves of Guernsey cannot be compared with those 

 of Sark, either in wealth of animal life or in number ; nor 

 have they those fascinating connecting passages, by which 

 one Sark cave joins another, or by which you can pass 

 through the rock to an otherwise inaccessible bay. Still, 

 the south coast of the larger island possesses many caves 

 of considerable size and interest. I have not made by any 

 means an exhaustive exploration of the coast, nor, except 

 in one case, have I taken exact measurements ; but I have 

 been asked to write a short account of some of the largest 

 caves which I have seen, and I hope that these notes will 

 be regarded merely as rough and imperfect jottings. 



Between La Moie and Petit Bot are a large number 

 of fine caves. Starting from La Moie, the first is in the 



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