Publisher's Synopsis
It lies, as will be seen upon the map, on the coast of France, adjoining the EnglishChannel. The Channel is here irregular in form, but may be, perhaps, on theaverage, one hundred miles wide. The line of coast on the southern side of theChannel, which forms, of course, the northern border of Normandy, is a range ofcliffs, which are almost perpendicular toward the sea, and which frown forbiddinglyupon every ship that sails along the shore. Here and there, it is true, a river opens apassage for itself among these cliffs from the interior, and these river mouthswould form harbors into which ships might enter from the offing, were it not thatthe northwestern winds prevail so generally, and drive such a continual swell ofrolling surges in upon the shore, that they choke up all these estuary openings, aswell as every natural indentation of the land, with shoals and bars of sand andshingle. The reverse is the case with the northern, or English shore of this famouschannel. There the harbors formed by the mouths of the rivers, or by thesinuosities of the shore, are open and accessible, and at the same time shelteredfrom the winds and the sea. Thus, while the northern or English shore has been, formany centuries, all the time enticing the seaman in and out over the calm, deep, and sheltered waters which there penetrate the land, the southern side has been analmost impassable barrier, consisting of a long line of frowning cliffs, with everyopening through it choked with shoals and sand-banks, and guarded by the rollingand tumbling of surges which scarcely ever rest.It is in a great measure owing to these great physical differences between the twoshores, that the people who live upon the one side, though of the same stock andorigin with those who live upon the other, have become so vastly superior to themin respect to naval exploits and power. They are really of the same stock and origin, since both England and the northern part of France were overrun and settled bywhat is called the Scandinavian race, that is, people from Norway, Denmark, andother countries on the Baltic. These people were called the Northmen in thehistories of those times. Those who landed in England are generally termed Danes, though but a small portion of them came really from Denmark. They were all, however, of the same parent stock, and possessed the same qualities of courage, 5energy, and fearless love of adventure and of danger which distinguish theirdescendants at the present day. They came down in those early times in greatmilitary hordes, and in fleets of piratical ships, through the German Ocean and thevarious British seas, braving every hardship and every imaginable danger, to findnew regions to dwell in, more genial, and fertile, and rich than their own nativenorthern climes. In these days they evince the same energy, and endure equalprivations and hardships, in hunting whales in the Pacific Ocean; in overrunningIndia, and seizing its sources of wealth and power; or in sallying forth, whole fleetsof adventurers at a time, to go more than half round the globe, to dig for gold inCalifornia. The times and circumstances have changed, but the race and spirit arethe s
