Mr, Sutherland’s Account of Jersey. 8 
wards re-captured Mont Orgueil, and put an end to Maulevrier’s 
usurpation. 
A small pier, intended to facilitate the landing of stores, and 
shelter the numerous oyster vessels that resort to Grouville Bay at 
the dredging season, projects into the sea, immediately under the 
eastle guns. The bay, like that of St. Aubin, is defended by a re- 
gular line of martello towers, several of which are built far within 
flood-mark, on reefs that form part of the Violet Bank. The 
adjacent country is a perfect garden, and numerous secluded villas 
and cottages are scattered among the umbrageous and productive 
orchards that spread around. A small village, called Goree, lies a 
short way southward of Mont Orgueil. In former times, it was a 
sutling-place for the garrison ; now it is only the rendezvous of a 
few oyster-fishers. In the auberges here, (every alternate house 
retailed liquor,) brandy sold at a shilling a bottle. The honest 
corporal at Mont Orgueil, mentioned that, about twenty years ago, 
several thousand Russian troops, destined to co-operate with a Bri- 
tish force in.a diversion on the coast of France, in favour of the 
house of Bourbon, were encamped here, and died in hundreds, in 
consequence of their intemperate attachment to this liquor. 
The road leading directly from Grouville to St. Helier runs pa- 
rallel with the southern shore, among corn fields, orchards, and 
hamlets, and is the best in the island. I travelled it after sun- 
set, and found myriads of toads hopping across it in every direc- 
tion. These reptiles are extremely common in Jersey ; while, in 
the neighbouring island of Guernsey, if popular report may be cre- 
dited, they are not only unknown, but cannot exist, as has been as- 
certained by importing them from less favoured countries. This 
exemption in favour of Guernsey, is in all probability a mere fable, 
originating with some ignorant native, the absurdity of which no 
person has been at the trouble to expose. Illiterate men are always 
eager to claim anomalies in nature in favour of the place of their 
birth. Lizards and small snakes are also numerous in Jersey ; and 
at night-fall, a chorus of crickets resounds from every hedge. So 
shrill is the tiny chirp of these insects, that it might almost pass 
for the vesper note of some diminutive feathered songster. 
The Jersey cattle are small; but like the pigmy breed of the 
Scottish Highlands, their flesh is delicate, and their milk and but- 
ter rich. The butcher market at St. Helier is supplied chiefly 
from France. There are sportsmen in Jersey as well as in other 
countries, but game is neither various nor abundant. The list, 
however, includes hares, rabbits, the Jersey partridge, a beautiful 
bird, with pheasant eyes, red legs, and variegated plumage, and 
several varieties of water fowl. In severe winters, flocks of solan 
geese, locally denominated “‘ barnacles,”’ frequent the shores ; and 
Falle states, that in his time a vulgar notion prevailed in the island, 
that these birds were bred in rotten planks, or the ribs of ships, 
which had long been immersed in the sea. The more credulous 
supporters of this theory, affirmed that they had seen the young 
