BLANKENBURG BRIGS

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anything to get them along, whilst the struggle for mastery is anxiously watched from the shore, where the inhabitants naturally come down to encourage their compatriots, relations, and friends. This applies principally to sailing craft, as the steamers generally carry their own pilots. Outside there are again other members of the pilot family, here in the open, snugly getting about under easy canvas, with an unmistakable pilot flag flying at the masthead.

Round the "Wielinger" lightship and the "West Hinder" lightship, which is three hours out from Flushing by mail steamer, the Channel tides sweep down with great force; and should there be a strong wind from the N. W. the water is driven up the Scheldt, sometimes with disastrous result, the long line of rush being shown by a continuous line of white frothy scum. The entrance to the Scheldt is well lighted; but the lightships are small, much lighter altogether than those on our coasts, and constructed of steel, which must make them cold in winter and hot in summer for the poor fellows on board. Those on board lightships have time to notice these little items of everyday life so much more than any one employed at high

pressure.

Now a farewell word to the "Blankenburg brigs!" They are very like the Dutch pinks just described; but, as the pilot remarked, they have two masts. Then the brigs are not decked boats, and the sails are very small; the "sweerd," or leeboard, is very narrow and dropped on both sides vertically; the bridle on the luff of the mainsail should not escape notice. The Flushing fishing boats are finer craft altogether, larger, and of better workmanship; in fact, a very powerful class, of great seaworthiness, such that we could take up to the Baltic. The Dutch are very proud of their "schokkers ”—that being the name by which Hollanders distinguish them --so much so that a Dutch gentleman had one built as a yacht and visited Cowes in August, 1897. She has great accommodation, and must be a fine sea boat, with her bold high bow. Her length is 78 ft., her beam 22 ft. with 5 ft. draught. She has a polemast, and is built as a model to encourage yachting in Holland, which is a great compliment to my old friends the "schokkers." My humble friends, "The Blankenburg brigs,” although they have two masts like brigs, with the square sails sideways, will never meet with such patronage.

CHASSE-MAREÉS.

THE national craft of the west coast of France is certainly the chassemarée, a name which is wonderfully twisted by our fishermen, and Anglicised until it can hardly be recognised without harking back to the original name for the sequel. For instance, some call them "slash-marées"; others, to be more English, know them only as "Charles Marys." One of these vessels is generally to be seen during the summer months lying off Southampton, trading from Morlaix in Brittany with onions. The crew, with their broad-brimmed velvet-bound felt hats, combine the commercial with the maritime, and persevere from house to house until their cargo is sold. The greater part of the fleet, however, is occupied in fishing.

Off Boulogne at one of the Channel races we had a curious sight, a big chasse-marée pounding along between "Iverna" and "Valkyrie," two of our most beautiful yachts; they were not long together. The dingy, bluffbowed lugger was a great contrast to the snow-white, well-trimmed canvas of our racers, whose racing flags were neatness itself, whilst the Frenchman ran up an enormous tricolour, for they love a big flag. The chassemarée is a big three-masted lugger, with a huge transverse crutch before the mizenmast, so that the mainmast can be lowered on to it when fishing. Three lugs and a jib is their usual canvas, with an occasional outer jib, as many of them have a jibboom. Havre de Grace is a great port for them, Boulogne having a large share of those fishermen, who work the English Channel.

CHASSE-MARÉE.

It is from Havre and Bordeaux that the Newfoundland fishermen start for the season on the Bank, having in the French colony the islands of S. Pierre and Miguelon as their centre. These islands were ceded to the French as shelters for their fishermen, with certain conditions as to fortifications and garrisons, at the time of the Treaty of Paris. For the Newfoundland cod fishery the French use schooners. The annual take of fish is gigantic, although the seasons vary in productiveness; still, the average is maintained in spite of an occasional "short catch," for the codfish is of rather a migratory turn of mind, and there are no signs of a failure of species.