ESCHARA. 359 



This is one of the things of which it is not easy to give 

 a person an idea, either by drawing or by verbal descrip- 

 tion. Were a cake of ash-colour to be kneaded out broad 

 and thin, and wrapped up in many winding folds leaving 

 numerous caverns^ and then baked or allowed to dry and 

 become hard, something might be formed resembling our 

 Eschara. And yet, after reading descriptions and seeing 

 figures, I found that I had formed an incorrect idea of it. 

 I had no notion that it was so great a thing. Mr. Couch 

 has seen a specimen which measured seven feet four inches 

 in circumference, and a foot and three-quarters in height. 

 This was a monster : but one the size of a bov^s head is not 

 uncommon. The first I saw was at Mrs. Gulson^s, Ex- 

 mouth, and Miss Cutler, who was present, said, when I 

 came to see her next day at Budleigh Salterton, she would 

 have some Usc/iara for me ; and certainly she kept her pro- 

 mise, for when I arrived I found that Mr. Templar and Mr. 

 Harris had been out, and had got ready for me, not a hand- 

 ful, or a hatful, or a pocketful, but absolutely a large wash- 

 ing-tub ful of living Eschara foliacea I 



"When living, it is a delicate flesh-colour, which turns 

 to a light brown in death. It is a very thin and foHaceous 

 species, resembling a sheet of paper, waved into various 



