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304 CHANNEL ISLANDS :
ed, that is to be found among these islands,
Nothing
is wanting to form the perfection of the picturesque ;
and if to the height and threatening aspect of the
cliffs, and the hollow bellowing of the sea as it rebounds
within the caverns, we add the feeling of solitude,
the picturesque rises almost into the sublime.
The Serk people have a singular appellation for the
caverns that abound on their shores, they call them
boutiques; but they are simps which one must enter
with caution : they have many ramifications, and communicate
with each other, by holes and archways.
Sometimes, you are in darkness,—and then, suddenly
you stand beneath a natural sky-light a hundred feet
above, through which the dazzling sun-light pours
down. But an inconsiderate progress into these
caverns is dangerous ; both because they abound in
deep pools, and because the level of caverns being
unequal, one may be surprised by the tide, which may
enter by some distant ramification. It would be impossible
I think, to conceive a more miserable termination
of life ; or death surrounded by more horrors,
than would be the lot of one, surprised in a cavern by
the tide. On the open sea, there is always something
like hope ; a sail,—a raft,—a hencoop ; there is at all
events companionship, and light,—space around, and
the sky above ; but alone, in a dark cavern,—retreating
to its farthermost extremity, as the water rises
higher and higher,—it is too horrible to contemplate ;
and yet some human beings have no doubt thus died.
I spent a long summer day among these singular
scenes ; and whether in shapes or hues, I have never
seen rocks offer so much that is curious to the eye.
There is scarcely a form that the rocks do not take,—
or at least, that fancy may not without any great
stretch, invest them with; and as for the hues of the
rocks,—grey, and buff, and black, and white, and blue,
and red, are all presented within the eye’s range. I
am almost ashamed to say, that it was neither the
search after steatite, or lapis ollaris, nor even the picturesque
beauties of the spot, that detained me beyond
the hour when my company was expected elsewhere ;
but an old, and very large grey gull, that sat on the
pinnacle of an insulated rock. There he was sitting
when I descended in the morning; there he sat like a
stoic, the livelong day, never joining the thousand of
his kind that wheeled, and sailed, and screamed around
him; and though really anxious to see him fly away,
and many a time attempting both by cries and missiles,
to send him among his kind, I was forced after all, to
leave him sitting.
But it is time now, that I should leave the general
external aspect of Serk, to speak of its inhabitants,—
their dwellings, and possessions, and mode of life, and
customs, and peculiarities: for these, after all, are
more important and more attractive, than the finest
descriptions of natural scenery that were ever offered
to the eye of a view hunter, or that ever employed
the pen of a tourist.