The beginning of February marks the height of what is known to th- inhabitants the Brittany coast as the "winter August," or period for gathering the seaweed rowing on the foreshore between high and jow water mark. This live seaweed," as the Bretons call it, has always been great request among them for manure and other agricultural uses. Many were the battles between denizens of neighbouring parishes who had reason to suspect each other of poaching. So long ago as 1681 a decree was issued by Louis XIV, ordering that in every coast parish a meeting of the inhabitants should be held on the first Sunday in January to fix the date for the beginning of the seaweed harvest and the number of days over which it should extend. This order is still observed with slight modifications. After morning mass on Epiphany Sunday the town clerk, crier, or rural guard, as the case may be, mounts the steps of the cross erected in the centre of the churchyard and ann-uncos the date of the harvest (previously fixed by the local authorities), winding up with the time-honoured formula: So prepare your arms and your sickles accordingly."
This little ceremony always excites a good deal of enthusiasm, for the seaweed harvest, coming as it does in the worst period of the winter, when fishing and farming are almost at 'a standstill, is looked forward to with joy asa relief from the monotony of indoor life, to which the Breton peasant is little inclined. The date of the harvest varies according to local customs, but is never later than the end lof February.
Every man, woman, and child capable of wielding a sickle or carrying a rake takes part in the work. Everyone is astir at three o'clock in the morning that operations may be begun without wasting a minute of daylight. The shore is divided into sections, one for each family in the parish; in some districts these sections are numbered and apportioned by lot to avoid disputes. The work is superintended by two or three local notables special elected for the purpose and adorned wit the alliterative title of garden-goemonniers or seaweed guards. One of their chief duties is to intervene in quarrels, which the prevailing excitement causes' to be rather frequent.
soon as the receding tide discloses the first reef with its crop of seaweed, there is a general rush. 'The women, with bare feet, their skirts tied about' th waists and their heads enveloped in_extraordinary blue pocket-handkerchiefs, dash into the water as eagerly as the men, cutting and hacking with their sickles as if their lives depended upon it, and encouraging exch other with shrill cries among which ' D'ar bein! dear besin iglaz!" (The seaweed! the green seaweed!") recurs again and again. Other workers collect the cut seaweed with rakes ani pile it on the carts and farm wagons. So the harvesting proceeds, with brief intervals for a mouthful of bread and a gulp of eau-de-vie out of the bottle, until the church bell announces the turn of the tide. This is the signal for a general movement towards terra sirma. The strongest and most. expert workers remain on the reefs until the last moment, binding the seaweed together with cords into huge bundles, on which they calmly take their seats and wait until the rising tide floats them ashore.
M. PICHON, the French Minister at Peking, has just been raised to the frst class of his ginde prior to his promotion to a more important post nearer home. M. Pichon has hal a wonderfully successful career in the diplomatic service, which he entered less than five years ago. He is considered here as an except likely to rise He was Radical journalist and politician until his defeat.at-the general election of 1893, and he is now only forty-two.
10th February.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.