The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1866-04-24 00:00:00

GU ERNBgY.

Tea Towns or pus Su, SY VICTOR Hcoo.—
' A few weeks ago, Victor Hugo, the illustrious
French writer, and exile at Guernsey, (very much
like the Roman poet Ovid ended at Tonne on the
Eosins fur insults to the Imperial family of Augustus'
Gaier), well, the great French poet has just pro-
duced hi. latter work Lee TravailLear* e I Mer,
for the copyright of which • Parisian publisher has
given him plump £4 000 ; math. the same firm that
paid him not sere long ago £16,000 for his gnat
work Les Miserable., or the "Outcast.. of Society.'
Were not Victor Hugo an exile, and perhaps the
only one that cannot he recalled, such emu would
hays truly seemed exorbitant, his world-renowned
talent notwithstanding; but his works are the more
sought after in France, end devoured with the lame
rehab as forbidden fruit, and both he and publishers
are great gainers thereby. So, after all, Victor
Hugo is not to be pitied, for he has found and nobly
uses the means which nature and circumstances have
plaited in his power. This is how he repays the
Geernsian hospitality,- cousidenng that the children
of the poor suffer from iosuMoiant and bad food, he,
Victor Hugo, (and this is one of his beet works,)
gives • weekly substantial meal to all the poor
children "f the island ; mind oat now and then, but
once • week, and all the year round. Leaving other
people to open Ragged and other humble schools, be
peewee the mean mina in carport ease, and the
result lea great reduction of mortality among the
poor families. This beats the cheap Glasgow
kitchens, and is bettor than an increase of the
wants wages, especially if the gift could take plus
twice& week. On the other hind may we not be
allowed to suppose that the leisures of the anther's
elide have given ROD more time and thought for Isis
Miarables, sod more opportunities for his 2'rusail-
Inas de le Merl If all the above considetations
cannot comfort bim in ha exile, at all *wenn they
may consols us for hia fortune and philanthropy, u
well as for the enjoyment we deriv• from all of his
good works. After this digression which your feeling
reads, will readily excuse, allow me to add that ture
is already an English translation of the latter work
under this title :—"The Toilers of the Sea," prioe
254., in three vole, which is likely to be soon fol-
lowed by some cheaper one. Among the most
stirring miniatures with the musters of the deep,
we my place the hairbreath escape of Cabot, the
fisherman, from the close embrace of a many.arined
or legged canton that has no booms, no teeth, no
claws, and yet is Dearly as dangerous in the Arigio-
Fnmels channel, as ho shock a in the tropical eras
Not unlike the fabled Protein, it assumes many
forms, and also been several names. Among the
secants it was called remora, front in power to
stop boata and seamen By the moderns it is
celled " socknose," from its being often found
attached to rocks. The French nataraliate call it
La porlpe, from ika soft pulpy muscles, and la Mole, ,
from its power M section or drying the bodies
caught in its gram. By the French fishermen it is
called both It stinard and Is pleurae, neither of ,
which popular names evinces a dear etymology.
Minaret perhaps from misiari, to threaten; but L
cannot make anything out of pteurre ; some eves
call it the wheel, the van, and the Medina. As
to the monster's shape, fancy sit enormous whitish
or greyish spider, surrounded by eight long but :
fleshy arms or legs. These sometimes lie close
together like a folded umbrella, and the body than
looks like the bulb of • gigantic hyacinth or grenade;
at other times the leas all expand, and present the
image of • wheel in motion; when only three legs ex-
pand they may represent the three lags of the tale
of Man; but when all dr,op round the body it
gives an idea of the head of Medium crowned with
serpents. Bad as the look is, the effect is Mill worm;
woe to the bather or fisherman who approaches
unawares that pale or opal glutmous substance! be
may be suddenly lashed by oos or more of those
eight strong lassoes, which won deprive him of
motion, then its gigantic mouth reaches him and
soaks him to death. On the Osumi shoree this
Belt proves ss fatal as the cramp. and it would be •
terrible hue if it could not be emir turned inside
out by ea perimmed Sabers, and made excellent fi • I
of. I. 00•OlOgin0, I must add my own testimony
to the ens of this wooderful mollusk. Some years
ago, • spring tide brought on the Weymouth suds,
in front of the B. Indere, a gigantic, "suckstooe,”
alias pitmen or saincrci. Many saw it as well as I;
in body was about 20 inches in diameter, fire feet
in circumference, and its legs more than four jest
long; it aeon died out of water. I safely drove my
walking stick to it. very ours. Next day it was
carted away for manure, although if taken in the
first moment, it would have afforded • Moe treat at
all the hotels of Weymouth, for the flesh when
boiled is • great delicacy. As we delight is lobster
tea at autngton Mills, so they enjoy their salad of
enure( at Si Malo, and in the Channel Lauda
and Victor Hugo himself may hese sopped off this
horror. —Amato- F sten ca, Weymouth.