En Cornouaille est un port, il y vient cent bateaux.
Un sable jaune et fin couvre ses cotes plates,
Mais un infect amas de rogues, de morgates,
D'ossements de poissons sur le rivage epars,
La saumure qui filtre entre ses deux remparts,
Soulevent tous les sens quand cette odeur saline
Arrive au voyageur qui tourne la colline,
Laissant derriere lui les taillis de Melven,
La belle lande d'or qui parfume Aven,
Et ces mouvants aspects de plaines, de montagnes
Que deroulent sans fin nos sauvages campagnes.
Plus de batteurs de seigle ici, plus de faucheurs,
Mais des canots charges de mousses, de pecheurs,
Partant et revenant avec chaque maree,
Et sur les quais du pont versant a leur rentree,
Des sardines en tas, des congres, des merlus,
Des homards cuirasses, de gros crabes velus;
Et, du fond des paniers, mille genres enormes,
De toutes les couleurs et de toutes les formes,
Avec leur oeil vitreux et leur museau beant,
Tous enfants monstrueux du grand monstre Ocean.
Aussitot le pressier les seche, les empile,
Et quand leur grasse chair a degorge son huile,
De Nantes a Morlaix cherchant les acheteurs,
On voit bondir sur mer les hardis caboteurs.""
_Les Bretons_--BRIZEUX.

[Illustration: 29. Concarneau, with Sardine Boats.]

Thus the Breton poet describes Concarneau, a little fortified town, which
has been called the St. Malo of Cornouaille, and is celebrated for its
sardine fishery. The road lay through a wooded country, with steep hills
and valleys, intersected by streams: on the right a view of the Bay of La
Foret, where extensive oyster-culture is going on. After a tedious journey
with miserable horses, we reached Concarneau at nine, a distance of little
more than thirteen miles, having set off a few minutes after four.
Concarneau proper is on a rocky island, surrounded by fortifications, with
eight or nine towers and thick walls, and communicating with the mainland
by means of a drawbridge. This is called the "Ville Close." It consists of
only one street. When Duke John IV. embarked from here for England, he
left Sir Robert Knollys governor of the duchy. The constable Du Guesclin,
after the surrender of Hennebont and Quimperle, took Concarneau by storm
and slew all the English garrison, except the captain, who received
quarter.

Opposite the island is the faubourg Sainte Croix, which is more populous