sea-faring population. The approach to the sea (on one side of the
promontory, on which the town is built) is very striking; we emerge
suddenly through a fissure in the cliffs on to the sea-shore, into the
very heart and life of the place--into the midst of a bustling community
of fishermen and women. There is fish everywhere, both in the sea and on
the land, and the flavour of it is in the air; there are baskets, bales,
and nets, and there is, it must be added, a familiar ring of
Billingsgate in the loud voices that we hear around us. Granville is
the great western sea port of France, from which Paris is constantly
supplied; and, in spite of the deficiency of railway communication, it
keeps up constant trade with the capital--a trade which is not an
unmixed benefit to its inhabitants; for in the '_Messager de Granville_'
of August, 1869, we read that:--


'L'extrême chaleur de la température n'empêche pas nos marchands
d'expédier à Paris des quantités considérables de poisson, _au
moment même où il est hors de prix sur notre marché_. Nous ne
comprenons rien à de semblables spéculations, dont l'un des plus
fâcheux résultats est d'ajouter--une _affreuse odeur_ aux désagréments
de nos voitures publiques!'


All through the fruitful land that we have passed, we cannot help being
struck with the evident inadequate means of transport for goods and
provisions; at Coutances, for instance, and at Granville (the great
centre of the oyster fisheries of the west) they have only just thought
about railways, and we may see long lines of carts and waggons, laden
with perishable commodities, being carried no faster than in the days
of the first Napoleon.