to _hang on_; but the wind _blew into us_ such a joyous and refreshing energy and power that this clinging to the rocks was no labour. Our sketch-book was not so fortunate, it was whirled from our grasp in a moment, and dashed against a towering block. We rushed wildly to save our treasure, but four or five of our favourite sketches were wafted in a few seconds high up among the clouds, imparting a deeper value to the _salvage_. [Illustration: LES AUTELETS] Ascending the ledge to the eastern side of the _Corbie du Nez_ or _Grin_, we come abruptly on a yawning cleft that nearly isolates the cape itself. Its aspect is formidable but its descent is easy, and it leads down to the mouth or funnel of the largest cave in the islet, _La Boutique, par excellence_. To reach an inner cave a barrier must be mounted. At high water, the billows, after dashing on the shore cliff, rush in with a thundering sound at two chasms on the north and west. At low water the inner boutique may be entered with a light; it is lofty, and on its surface there are a few stalactitic droppings and a sprinkling of ferns. There are smaller caverns in the cliffs. We come out on the broad bay of Banquette, and in the little cave to southward stand out in the most fantastic beauty the finest outlying rocks in the islet, _Les Autelets_—little altars: in complete contrast, however, one being a stupendous cube of _Grauwacke_ on a very narrow base, the other a huge pyramid, on the ledges of which a flight of choughs and shags settle and roost in the evening. The overhanging cliffs are nearly perpendicular, and along their base lie around in heaps the most gigantic blocks of very variegated stones, black, red and grey; and unlike the _angular_ blocks on the hills they are mathematically rounded off by the attrition of the waves. Among these rocks are deep pools of water, in which we may discover small crustacea, and rich varieties of the _daisy actinia_, the _nereis_, and _holothuria_, and other _anthozoa_. There is one flaunting in bright orange, and yonder crawls the _hermit crab_ that seems to have _perforated_ an actinia within a shell, the tissue of the anemone forming a ring round the crab. Many of the blocks are richly clothed with _fucus spiralis_ (_bladdervraich_) and _crithmum_ (_samphire_) in all their splendour of gold and bronze. We must be wary, however, in paddling over these slippery carpets, a fall from them is not a trifle. _Chondrus membranifolius_, and pink and green _polysyphonia_ and _dasya_ are hanging on the cliffs, and the _ulva_ and _porphyra_, oyster-green, and purple _laver_ on the deeper rocks. The blocks are studded with minute univalves, and the _patella_ shells of the limpet show like bosses on a shield.