The Isle Of Terror

Ushant, the island upon whose outlying reefs the steamer Drummond Castle ran, einking three minutes afterward and carrying down every soul on board, escept three, lies off the northwest extreinity of France and forms the corner around which vessels from the south turn into the English channel after crossing the bay of Biscay. "Ushant" is the Anglicized form of "Ouessant, " the French name. Pliny calis the island "Uxantis, " and the Britons know it as "Enez Heussa, " which means "The Isle of Terror." It well deserves the Celtio name. The inhabitantsof Ushant are a hardy race, the men allfishermen andseamen, the wonien all tillers of the rocky soil. The latter on high days and holidays still of ten display their ancientcostume, with its flat coif, which strikingly recalls the feminine headgear of southern Italy, and whence their dark hair streams iu freedom below their waists. Within the last quarter of a century a breed of ponies still roamed in semiwildness over a large part of the island, and for centuries the inhabitants themselves were looked upon as savages. Debarred, often för long weeks at a time, from any intercourse with the mainland, they certainly led very primitive lives. But at the same time they preserred the primitive virtues, and honesty and hospitality have ever been articles of faith among them. Losing year by year, with urfailing regularity, a score or two of their own kith and kindred in the treacherous waters around ibeir isle, ' their sympathies have always been with those whom shipwreck bas iniperiled. Several of the Breton islands have notoriously harbored cornrnunities cf wreckers, bnt the people of Ushant have again and again distinguished themselves by their efforts to save distressed vessels or their crews. Whenever one of the islanders is lost at sea, a touching cereinony, called"the proella" is perfornied. The relatives and friends of the deceased carry to his house a suiall wooden cross, over which the clergy repeat the prayers for the dead, as if this symbol were the corpse itself. Then the cross bearer, who, whenever practicable, is the godfather of the defunct (this again a touching instauce of symbolism), iücloses it in a coffer, and, followed by all the mourners, deposits it at the foot of a statue of St. Pol Aurelien, the patrón of the isle. A fewyearsago a hundred orsoof these cofifers could be seen assembled around the statue. Ushant is known to history. As early as 1388 an.Euglish expedition landed on the island and ravaged it with fire and sword. Then, in 1778, its waters witnessed the much criticised naval engagement between Keppel and d'Orvilliers, which English histories usually describe as a drawn battle, whereas the French invariably claim it as a decisive victory. Finally, 16 years later, Uehant saw the "glorious first of June, " when Lord Howe certainly shattered the French ships of war commanded by Villaret-Joyeuse, but at the same time signally failed to prevent the large fleet of French merchantmen, on whose arrival France depended for means to prosecute the war, from getting safely into the port of Brest. That Ushant is, in Breton estimation, predestined to deeds of blood and death is shown by a strange rhymed proverb, which Chateaubriand quotes in his "Memoirs From Beyond the Grave," and which raay be Englished thus: "He who sees Belle Isle doth see his isle' ; He who seeth Groi doth see his joy, but gaze on Ushant's flood, you see your blood. ' ' Of the wild scenery around Ushant there bas probably never been any bet-, ter description than that given by Chateaubriand. The island is the largest and from the mainland the most distant, of those f orming the archipelago to which it gives its name. Molene, the next in size, trades largely in its own soil, which on account of certain chemical properties is sought after by Breton agriculturists. Then, in addition to scores of little islets, some of them mere aits and rocks, there is Quemenez, which is about a quarter the size of Ushant, wbile near to the mainland is Beniquet, or the Blessed Isle, so called on account of its proximity to the Breton shore and the refuge it offers amid the most dangerous of all the adjacent reefs, that of Les Pierres Noires. Many a stout ship and many a frail flshing boat have been shattered among these reefs, where the waters ever seethe and roar, even on calm summer days. But winter is the time to see Ushant and its neighboring isles, all bare and rugged, rising from amid the gale lashed waves. No rock bound coast eau offer a more impressive spectacle than that which the ocean then presents as it leaps in its dread, blind might around