10 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



is a picture. The whole coast -line is twisted and 

 waved about into a series of bays and creeks, each hav- 

 ing a character of its own ; and whether we stand on 

 the Tors, and look along the coast — or on the shore, 

 and look up at the rocks, there is always some new 

 aspect, something charming for the eye to rest upon. 



" An iron coast and angry waves, 



You seem'd to hear them climb and fall, 

 And roar, rock-thwarted, under bellowing caves, 

 Beneath the windy wall." * 



The rock is grauwacke or clay- slate, with occasional 

 streaks of quartz ; and the stratification is very various. 

 Look at that reef, round and along which the stealthy 

 tide is crawling ; see how the back of it is ridged with 

 sharp sudden lines cutting against the sky ; or look at 

 that sombre precij^ice over which the gull is floating 

 broad-winged, uttering its piteous cry, or startling you 

 with its strange mocking laugh. A little farther and 

 the eye rests on a purple-tinted wall of rock, from the 

 sides of which jut ledges covered with vegetation. The 

 soil here is so generous, that nature seems to be burst- 

 ing into life through every crevice, and on every inch. 



There is, however, one serious drawback at Ilfra- 

 combe — the complete absence of sands whereon to loll 

 or stroll, or, in the quiet hours of moonlight, to wander 

 nourishing one's middle age sublime " with the fairy 

 tales of science and the long results of time." How- 

 ever, sands are poor hunting-grounds ; let us take con- 



* Tennyson. 



