MONT-SAINT-MICHEL, thOx r:FIN ocrsli l'. A remarkable granite cone in the _Bay of Canenle or Saint Michel, in the Department of Manche, France, near the mouth of the River Conesnon, here separating Brittany and \o•mandy, six miles couthw est of Avranches (Slap: France, E 3). It was fo•ste•1y isolated, but since 1879 a eauseway three-quarters of a mile long connects the Mont with the mainland. Capped by an im posing ma-ks of monastic buildings with a statue tipped apex towering 233 feet above the level of the extensive bay, it forms the most striking feature in the landscape. The bay, left hare at low water, extends S miles from north to south with a maximum width at its mouth of 15 miles, and is noted for its quicksands and the ous rapidity of its rising tides. The base of the :Mont, two miles in c•irennnferesee, is surrounded Sty sixteenth-century ramparts, towers. and bas tions. A single gate gives admittanee to a small village on the southern slope, with medhuval houses, hostelries for pilgrims and 4ravelers, an interesting museum, the famous Porte du lloi, Dugneselin's observatory, and an ancient parish church. The village is built along a narrow, winding street whieh, with numerous flights of steps. leads to the summit crowned by the ab hatial castle surmounted ln• a basilica o• church with a lofty Gothie spire. The principal features of the abbey are the Crvpte de l'Aquilon, al monry, cellar, and dungeons, dating from the twelfth century; the Crypte des Gros Piller,. the
Salle des Chevaliers, the refectory. the graceful cloister, dormitory, and La Slerveille, or north wall of the abbey. 240 feet long and 10S feet high. dating from the thirteenth century, and the cll telet or donjon, and the flamboyant Gothic church, dating from the fifteenth century. The Mont was the ancient Slons 'rumba, an elevation, crowned by a temple of the Druids, in the Forest of Scissy. which was submerged by an inundation in the seventh century. The abbey was founded in 709 by Saint Aubert, Bishop of Avranches. It became a noted pilgrimage resort, and in the twelfth century was famous for its library and the learning of its monks, whose chronicles de scribe it as the 'mons in periculo maris.' The buildings date chiefly from after 1203, when the abbey was burmd down by the soldiers of Philip Augustus. It successfully resisted the assaults of the English mid Huguenots; was dismantled at the Ilevolutiqn and converted into a political prison: and is now included among the historical monuments of France. During the last three decades it has been undergoing a process of restoration, not yet completed. Population of village, in 1901, 235.