150 
A naturalist’s ramble in guernsey. 
broccoli, &c.) and fruits (grapes, tomatoes, pears, &c.). Owing" 
to the early spring — vegetation being usually a month in advance 
of that of England — these products fetch a high price in the 
English market. Glass is extensively used in raising this 
produce and in horticulture, and it is no exaggeration to say 
there are acres of greenhouses. The quantity of grapes exported, 
all grown under glass, in 1880, is estimated at 206 tons ; they 
fetch in Covent Garden Market from 15s. to 8d. per lb., accord- 
ing to season and quality — estimated value, £20,000. The 
soil is not naturally of exceptional fertility, yet, owing to the 
mildness of the winter, two crops are frequently obtained in a 
year. Seaweed, here called Wrack,” a corruption of ‘‘ Vraic,” 
is the principal manure. This is cut at low water of spring 
tides, and collected from the beach after storms ; and is also 
used ill the manufacture of iodine, &c. The article is so 
important, that its collection is regulated by local ordinances ; 
each parish can only cut at its appointed bays, and no one must 
cut but at the authorized times. The collection of the vraic- 
havvest is a most animated scene ; all the country carts, horses, 
and labourers are in request, the beach is alive ; there are men 
up to their waists in the sea, cutting the w^eed from the rock, others 
collecting it with large wooden rakes, others carrying or carting 
it to a place of safety above the flood-tide ; then at greater leisure 
it is carted away to the farm, or spread out in odorous patches 
on the shingle or turf bj" the roadside along the bays to dry. (I 
remember the smell arising from it along Vazon Bay, and the 
blue-eyed children running after the carriage, crying “ Des 
doubles,” “ Des pennies ’'). 
With all its productiveness the islanders cannot raise sufficient 
food to feed the inhabitants, nor is this to be wmndered at when 
we remember that 30,000 people are here concentrated on 
twenty-three square miles. The deficiency is largely supplied 
from France, there being constant communication with St. Malo, 
