46 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



sented themselves : on one side was a precipice some 

 three or four hundred feet high, and at its feet rolled 

 the sea, from whose rapacious waves, that seemed to 

 be still roaring after their prey, I had so narrowly 

 escaped ; upon the other side lay a wild Yorkshire 

 moor ; a false step in one direction would have been 

 instant death, and any step in the other apparently 

 very useless, and certainly dangerous. To lodge on 

 the cold ground seemed therefore the safest and wisest 

 plan ; hungry, tired, and moreover wet to the skin, I 

 sat me down, doubtless as melancholy and discon- 

 solate an object as could well be imagined. 



But my destiny was not to be quite so bad as I 

 anticipated ; a glimmer of light became perceptible 

 at some distance directly inland it was no will-o'- 

 the-wisp to tempt me over the cliff, I was quite sure 

 of that cautiously I advanced towards it, gathering 

 more courage as I felt myself more remote from that 

 dizzy height, and at last succeeded in procuring a 

 guide to Robin Hood's Bay. 



It was nearly midnight when, under the safe con- 

 duct of my escort, following a tortuous and steep 

 descent, we reached the beach in that secluded nook, 

 and there beheld a scene not easily forgotten. 



Few visitors to the sea-side have not, at some time 

 or other, more especially during the summer season, 

 had occasion to observe, while walking by night upon 

 the shore, or else, while enjoying the breeze upon some 

 pier-head or sea-overhanging cliff, a phenomenon as 

 beautiful as it is astonishing. The waves, as they 

 come rolling in, seem fringed with fire ; and when they 

 break upon the shore, burst into liquid flame which 



