the work. Mademoiselle Pagny nich were perhaps a yard and a half t inches wide, which, at the cost of were worth forty dollars, and this twenty cents a day, which is about ay of the lacemakers, represents a hundred days on a surface of not ree square feet. CHAPTER VIII. ABOUT HARBORS AND ROADSTEADS. THE greatness and glory of England, and exalted position which she occupies among other nations of the earth, depend in a v great degree upon certain peculiar facilities wł the island of Great Britain affords for manu turing and for commerce, and upon the extra dinary energy and skill exerted by the An Saxon race in developing and employing th The facilities for manufacturing specially enjo in England consist chiefly in the immense st of coal and iron which lie imbedded in the isla and by means of which two millions of labo are able to perform the labor of twenty millio The commercial advantages are derived man from the great number of deep and capaci harbors which abound along the coast of islands, and the safe roadsteads, or places of chorage for ships, in the various bays, chann and straits which separate the different isla from each other. In both these respects France is very dif been made by means of artificial nd piers. pecially the case in the channel es England from France. On the mature has formed several very good the French side none. ament of France have made, from in the course of the last five or ten number of artificial harbors along ich answer very well the purposes ships. These harbors are made at of the rivers that empty into the orthern coast of France. There is 3, another at Boulogne, another at other, the largest and best of all, is of the Seine, at Havre. Indeed, ame of this town, Le Havre, means this being the harbor, par excelwhole coast. ese there are several minor harbors, principally for fishing smacks and vessels engaged in the coasting tween mud, machi sins ex the to always are ne cept floatin are al always The no ga self a tides. this c mouth tide is chann it out mains strean centre reached, and then keeping open the passage tween these piers by dredging out the sand mud, as fast as it fills in, by means of dred machines. There are also usually two large sins excavated at the inner end of the piers, the town. Of these two basins one is always full, by means of prodigious gates, w are never opened to let vessels go in and out cept when the tide is up. This is called floating basin, because the vessels that are i are always afloat, the basin itself being always full of water. The other basin is much larger, and there no gates at the entrance to it, so that it fill self and empties itself at every change in tides. The tides rise and fall so much a this coast, and the depth of water within mouths of the rivers is so small, that when tide is low the bed of the large basin and channel between the two long piers leading f it out to sea, are almost empty. Nothing mains in them, in fact, but small tortu streams of turbid water winding through centre, while everywhere else nothing is seen mat no vessel can enter or leave high tide. For the rest of the s must either lie helpless in the er, or outer basin, or if they have the inner basin in order to be ey are fastened in by the great En not be opened until the tide ■; for if the gates were to be e tide is low all the water in the would immediately run out, and s that had been taken in there e mud like those outside. arbors answer very well for merhat are to come in and lie alongdischarge their cargoes, and also eamers which go to and fro across king travelers from England to ing them back again; but they the purpose of ships of war. require a place of refuge where n at all times of tide; and more require a large anchorage ground, principa not onl within 1 posite to talimite protecte natural the sea channel. winds. the prin Spithead and squ distant of the sh In rea especiall tinually home fro of the Portsmo It is s naval po |