20 Mr. Sutherland’s Account of Jersey. 
of waters, as a type of the intellectual illumination experienced by 
the ocean pilgrim, when he first steered his bark into its solitudes ? 
Who can survey, even the hither strand of that vast sea, without 
reflecting that the waves that break at his feet have laved the palm- 
fringed shores of America; and that the bones of millions—the 
pride, and pomp, and treasure of nations—repose in the same capa- 
cious tomb ? . : 
Anxious to be a spectator of the perils that beset navigation 
among these islands, I repaired to the deck before day-break, at 
which time, according to our captain’s calculation, we were likely 
to double the Corbiére—a well-known promontory on the western 
side of Jersey—which requires to be weathered with great circum- 
spection. Jersey was already visible on our larboard bow,—a lofty 
precipitous coast. Wind and tide were in our favour, and we swept 
smoothly and rapidly round the cape; but the jagged summits of 
the reefs that environ it, and the impetuosity of the currents, bore 
incontestible evidence to the verity of the tales of misfortune which 
our captain associated with its name. The rock which bears the 
appellation of the Corbiére, is close in shore, and so grotesque in 
form, as to be readily singled out from the adjacent cliffs. A reef, 
visible only at low water, shoots from it a considerable distance 
into the sea, and another ledge of the same aspect, lies still far- 
ther seaward ; consequently the course of a careful pilot, is to 
hold his way free through the channel between them. If a lands- 
man may be permitted to make an observation on a nautical point, 
I would say that our steersman kept the peak of the Corbiére ex- 
actly on a level with the adjacent precipices, till we were directly 
abreast of the headland, and then stood abruptly in-shore till within 
a few fathoms cf the cliffs, under the shadow of which he after- 
wards held a steady course till we opened the bay of St. Aubin. 
The fantastic and inconstant outline of the Corbiére, as we were 
hurried swiftly past it, was a subject of surprize and admiration. 
When first seen through the haze of morning, it resembled a huge 
elephant supporting an embattled tower; a little after, it assumed 
the similitude of a gigantic warrior in a recumbent posture, armed 
cap-a-pied ; anon, this apparition vanished, and in its stead rose a 
fortalice in miniature, with pigmy sentinels stationed on its ram- 
_ parts. The precipices between the Corbiére and the bay of St. 
Aubin, are no less worthy of notice than that promontory. They 
slope down to the water edge in enormous protuberances, resem- 
bling billows of frozen lava, intersected by wide sinuous rifts, and, 
present a most interesting field for geological research. 
The bay of St. Aubin is embraced by a crescent of smiling emi- 
nences thickly sprinkled with villas and orchards. St. Helier 
crouches at the base of a lofty rock that forms the eastern cape: 
the village of St. Aubin is similarly placed near Noirmont Point, 
the westward promontory, and between the two, stretches a sandy 
shelving beach, studded with martello towers. The centre of the 
bay is occupied by Elizabeth Castle,—a fortress erected on a lofty 
