amer with
Guernsey and Jersey is provided on alternate days from Southampton and
Weymouth, by steamers of the London & South-Western and Great Western
railway companies of England. Railway communications within the islands
are confined to Jersey. Regular steamship communications are kept up
from certain French ports, and locally between the larger islands. In
summer the islands, especially Jersey, Guernsey and Sark, are visited by
numerous tourists, both from England and from France.

The islands fall physically into four divisions. The northernmost, lying
due west of Cape La Hague, and separated therefrom by the narrow Race of
Alderney, includes that island, Burhou and Ortach, and numerous other
islets west of it, and west again the notorious Casquets, an angry group
of jagged rocks, on the largest of which is a powerful lighthouse.
Doubtful tradition places here the wreck of the "White Ship," in which
William, son of Henry I., perished in 1120; in 1744 the "Victory," a
British man-of-war, struck on one of the rocks, and among calamities of
modern times the wreck of the "Stella," a passenger vessel, in 1899, may
be recalled. The second division of islands is also the most westerly;
it includes Guernsey with a few islets to the west, and to the east,
Sark, Herm, Jethou (inhabited islands) and others. The strait between
Guernsey and Herm is called Little Russel, and that between Herm and
Sark Great Russel. Sark is famous for its splendid cliffs and caves,
while Herm possesses the remarkable phenomenon of a shell-beach, or
shore, half-a-mile in length, formed wholly of small shells, which
accumulate in a tidal eddy formed at the north of the island. To the
south-east of these, across the channel called La Deroute, lies Jersey,
forming, with a few attendant islets, of which the Ecrehou to the
north-east are the chief, the third division. The fourth and
southernmost division falls into two main subdivisions. The Minquiers,
the more western, are a collection of abrupt rocks, the largest of
which, Maitresse Ile, affords a landing and shelter for fishermen. Then
eastern subdivision, the Iles Chausey, lies about 9 m. west by north of
Granville (to which commune they belong) on the French coast, and
belongs to France. These rocks are close set, low and curiously regular
in form. On Grande Ile, the only permanently inhabited island (pop.
100), some farming is carried on, and several of the islets are
temporarily inhabited by fish