262 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 



" All hail to the ruins, the rocks and the shores ! 



Thou wide-rolling Ocean, all hail ! 

 Now brilliant with sunbeams, and dimpled with oars, 



Now dark with the fresh-blowing gale. 

 While soft o'er thy bosom the cloud shadows sail, 



And the silver- wing'd sea-fowl on high, 



Like meteors bespangle the sky, 

 Or dive in the gulf, or triumphantly ride 

 Like foam on the surges, the swans of the tide." 



GENTLE reader, was it ever your good fortune, in 

 company with a stout pair of legs, a steady head, and 

 a Cumberland friend, to climb the dizzy cliffs leading 

 from Whitehaven to St. Bee's Head? If so, and 

 you had a fine day for the excursion, it is a walk not 

 easily to be forgotten; if not, we beg the pleasure of 

 your company as we cursorily glance at the principal 

 features of the scene. It is by no means child's play 

 that walk ; but as it is our privilege, we will, upon 

 the present occasion, suppose ourselves already half- 

 way advanced upon our road, and taking our stand 

 here upon the summit of this cliff, survey the scene 

 spread out in grand panorama around us. Behind 

 us, in the purple distance, are the Cumberland moun- 

 tains, Skiddaw and Helvellyn and Saddleback, looming 

 through the haze, like the dim forms of Ossian's 



