^^ I HE MIv\V.ST(^NE. 



by water : in passing under the bold heights of Stad- 

 don some peculiar geological formations may be ob- 

 served, which have been noticed by Mr. Prideaux, 

 in the ^^ Transactions of the Plymouth Institution." 

 Bovisand pier, and watering place, the Preventive 

 station, the Harbour master's house, and the Break- 

 water present themselves in pleasing and picturesque 

 succession. At high water a boat may pass with 

 safety between the Reny rocks and the shore, or be- 

 tween the former and the Shag stone ; either of these 

 passages will afford a shorter course than going out- 

 side the Shag stone ; the latter however is safer at 

 low water, as a reef of rocks runs from the shore to 

 the Reny, and is continued to the Shag : some of 

 which, lying just below the surface, might not be 

 perceived by those unaccustomed to a boat or the 

 passage. In passing outside the Shag stone, a boat 

 may almost touch it with her broad-side, as there is 

 a depth of four fathoms and^ half at low water ; and 

 by approaching as closely as possible, a good estimate 

 may be formed of the size and form of this singular 

 rock, heaving its vast cubical mass out of the tor- 

 mented waters, that, in the calniest weather are whi- 

 tening at its base. 



Should the voyager to the Mewstone choose to 

 make his excursion in a July sea-fog, he will be well 

 repaid for his risk of steering out to sea : he is hereby 

 recommended not to take a compass, the surety de- 

 rived from that will spoil all his excitement ; let him 

 steer by the dim image of the sun, which, though 

 burning in a clear cloudless sky above him, sheds 

 but a subdued light on the mist curtained waters ; it 

 is very probable that he will not loose sis;ht of land 

 until he has passed Bovisand pier ; he will shortly 

 afterwards have the satisfaction of beholding nothing 

 but sea and sky, or rather sea and fog. Nothmg will 

 be visible but the heaving w^aters and their canopy 

 of white cloud, which sometimes sheds so much ob-^ 

 scurity around, that a vessel bound to port may not 

 be perceived a-head until there is but just time to 



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