THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 12085, 14 August 1917, Page 8

THE ENGLISH CHANNEL.

WORLD'S GREATEST WATER'WAY To those who have acquaintance with the way of the sea; in different parts of the world, who'know something of tbe strange Lonesorueness of the mid-Atlantic, the burnished brilliance of tho tropics, or the leaden grayness of tho northern oceans, there is something about the English Channel which seems to make it a. waterway apart, "Sailing up the Channel" towards tho Straits of Dover, or " sailing down the Channel " towards the open sea. are phrases which seem to be abundantly fulfilled in practice, whenever one makes the journey. Every vessel one sees go by has about it an air of setting cut or returning home. Thero is much more of the companionship of the river about it all than of the chance " hail and farewell" of the sea. Geologists have, of course, much to say about the Channel. They will tell you how, along its coasts on either side, cliffs a.nd lowlands alternate, and how tho "geological affinities" between successive opposite stretches are well marker] ; how the granite of Cornwa.il and . Devon is clearly own brother to the of Brittany, a.nd so on, oil tho way to tt'ho "silver streak." where the white cliffs of Dover find fellows in the white Limestone about Calais and. Boulogne. Geographers, too, will tell you that, if the entrance to the Channel shall be taken to lie between TJshant and the Seilly Isles, its extreme length is about 320 miles;; whilst its. width varies from 100 miles, .at its entrance to 20 miles at the Straits.. The avei> age man pays little attention- to the figures, but he is grateful to be incidentally , reminded of such places as Devon and Cornwall, of Brittany, and Ush.ant, and the Seilly Isles. . Indeed, among the great joys *>f a voyage up or down, the Channel, to anyone who knows it<he country well, especially the English shore, are the unexpected views he gains of familiar scenes; the noting how this or that building, hill or wood, which he never thought very conspicuous, stands , ont quite definitely as a landmark, when observed from the sea. Then, if he makes part of his journey by night, as indeed he needs must, there will be the lights to identify—and who that has made much excursion abroad by sea is not familiar with the satisfaction of greeting a known light a lone: way off ? —Dover, Beachy Head, St Katherine's Point, and so on. Perhaps the most thorough way of exploring the Channel is to make" the start from London, to pull out' from the great mass of warehouses and shipping which piles up in strange complexity round St Mary Axe, for in stance, not far from Wapping Stairs, and be towed cautiously down the river through the Poo] and Limehouse Reach, and so on .towards the sea.. If a. start is made at midday in summer, it will be nightfall by the time the ship is off Broadstairs, and the voyager will have an afternoon of recollection | behind him, recollections of the statiely buildings and still more stately trees of . Greenwich, the great lines of Tilbury Docks, ' the monstrous Immensity " of the hotel at Southend; and the familiar landmarks of Whitstable, Heme Bay a.nd Margate, and so on round the. corner to Broadstairs. all places which recent happenings have rendered only too familiar. After nightfall, if. he stays on deck long enough, there.is the light on Cape Gris-Nez, over in. France, and the lights of Boulogne; and then,:.as. the coast of France falls away south, a.nd •the ship hugs the English shore, there are the lights of Hastings and of Eastbourne, and the solitary light at the foot, of r.he cliff a.t'Beachy Head. And, all the tim.ei ships are passing, homeward bound ships mostly, and some, for so It was before the war, are a, blase of light, and some again steal .past with showing but just the red and the greeu on either side, and the steady white light high up on the masthead. -Early next morning, maybe, iinds the Isle of Wight strangely near on the starboard, a.nd, thereafter, the land sinks away to the inost distant horizon, as the coast sweeps inwards along the great bight of Dorset and Devon; and so on to Start Point, and from Start Point to Lizard Head and Laud's End. Then as the sun is sinking in the west, lighting up the red cliffs of Cornwall, tbe Seilly Isles come in sight, and pass by, and the Chan-» nel is left behind.