236 SEA-SIDE STUDIES. 



basins, whicli looked so convincingly human in tlieir 

 design and execution, are proved by Science to be the 

 result of the disinteoratinsr action of winds and waters, 

 the uniformity of the causes producing that uniformity 

 of result which seemed the betrayal of design. There is 

 something almost pathetic in an acute and erudite man 

 like Borlase (a naturalist too, and inventor of the strange 

 worm which bears his name, Nemertes Borlasia)^ wan- 

 dering amono' these ruo^o^ed rocks, and findino- in them the 

 traces of an ancient religion ; noticing the oval basins, 

 and believinoj them to be human work ; inventinoj a 

 plausible explanation of their uses, admiring their design, 

 and feeling a sacred awe in their presence ; whereupon 

 arrives the geologist with his disintegrating explana- 

 tion, and the whole erudite fabric falls to pieces. Had 

 Borlase lived in our time, imagine the ineffable scorn 

 with which he would have looked down upon my Dru- 

 idical authority. Norma ; yet, you see, he is, with all 

 his learning, quite as un veridical as Giulia Grisi, and 

 not half so beautiful. If Norma is not a good histori- 

 cal authority, it is at least a delightful one; and, with 

 Voltaire, I exclaim — 



" On court, helas, apres la verite ; 

 Ah ! croyez-moi, Terreura son m^rite." 



Scepticism refuses admission to these Druidical re- 

 mains altogether, so that I need not occupy space with 

 the description of them. But here is a story safe from 

 the assaults of scepticism, and thrilling enough it is to 

 deserve a place among moving accidents. 



On the 16th November 1840, the French brig Nerine, 



