REVIEWS. 
381 
THE CHANNEL ISLANDS* 
HE Channel Islands have deservedly “ won golden opinions from all 
sorts of people,” who have had the good fortune to make their 
acquaintance. Among them there is delightful boating, unrivalled sea- 
fishing, a genial climate, and plenty of scope for “ pic-nicing ” and sea- 
shore rambles. There is abundant employment, too, for the naturalist, the 
artist, and the antiquarian ; and there is much to interest the student of 
men and manners, — much in the current customs of the islands which 
appears to us quaint and antiquated, being, in fact, lingering relics of the 
Mediaeval period. 
It is true that the scenery of these islands is nowhere on a very grand 
scale, but it is always pleasing, and often highly picturesque and impres- 
sive. The highest point of Sark — the wildest of the group — is only 865 
feet above the sea-level ; but the imposing effect of its scenery is out of 
all proportion to its really trifling dimensions. Each island has its own 
peculiar character more distinctly marked than one would suppose likely 
in a group so nearly associated. The coast-line is very diversified, some- 
times showing gently-sloping sandy beaches of considerable extent, at 
others forming secluded little bays, each with its narrow strip of silvery 
sand, enclosed by walls of rock which rise steeply in the most picturesque 
variety of form, richly dyed witli lichens and mosses, and washed by a 
sea most “ deeply, darkly, beautifully blue.” We cannot call to mind a 
more lovely example of this kind of scenery than the well-known Moulin 
Huet Bay, in Guernsey. The south of Guernsey and north of Jersey 
afford many scenes of this class— beautiful nooks, which once seen, cannot 
fail often afterwards to “ flash upon that inward eye which is the bliss of 
solitude.” Of a totally different character is St. Ouen’s Bay, in Jersey, 
the noblest of all the bays of the Channel Islands, bounded by a range of 
sand-hills, from which the loose sand has been swept in eastward, con- 
verting a large tract of country into one great desert. Respecting this 
singular district, Mr. Ansted says : — 
“Owing to the prevalence of westerly winds, the sands covering the 
wide flat of St. Ouen’s Bay — the largest expanse of unbroken sand in the 
Channel Islands— are blown steadily onwards, and have at length not only 
covered the low hills near the shore, but have risen to, and partially over- 
whelmed the table-land of the interior. It is extremely interesting to 
watch this almost African expanse of undulating sands from the coast, in 
windy weather. The horizon is lost in the misty air, loaded with fine 
particles of sand, constantly in motion, whether the gale comes from the 
west or from the east. Since, however, winds from the former quarter 
* The Channel Islands. By David Thomas Ansted, M.A., F.R.S., &c., 
and Robert Gordon Latham, M.A., M.D., F.R.S., &c. ; with illustra- 
tions drawn by Paul J. Naftel, Member of the London Society of Painters 
in Water Colours. London : W. II. Allen & Co. 
2 D 
VOL. II. — NO. VII. 
