SEA-SIDE BOULDERS. 9 



for they set upon him in a troop and chased him away, 

 though not far. Presently a Gull came by and sailed 

 away straight out to sea for a long distance, then 

 turned, as if to challenge the terricolous daws to try 

 an ocean-flight with him. 



The beach ends northward in a wilderness of boul- 

 ders, enormous masses of red conglomerate detached 

 from the precipice above, and piled in confusion upon 

 each other, — Pelion upon Ossa, and Ossaupon Olym- 

 pus. This sort of composite rock readily yields to the 

 action of the weather, and hence the fallen masses 

 take rounded forms. On one of the most prominent 

 stood a gentleman, angling ; I scrambled over to him, 

 and learned that he was fishing for pollock ; they come 

 in shoals and bite readily ; but it was rather too early 

 in the season now. 



Great boulders like these do not generally afford a 

 very favourable field to the naturalist ; where, however, 

 one is resting partially on others, so as to allow an 

 examination of its under side, this is sometimes pro- 

 ductive, provided it be not far from low-water mark. 

 In a dark cavernous recess here I found attached to 

 the overhanging surface of a huge mass, a specimen, 

 as big as a dinner-plate, of that curious dense sponge 

 discovered by my esteemed friend Mr. Bowerbank, and 

 named by him Pachymatisma JoJmstonia. In another 

 similarly situated, was a numerous colony of the 

 common smooth Sea-anemone {Actinia mesemlrij- 

 anthemum), composed, in about equal numbers, of two 

 pretty varieties, the one a fine dark red, the other a 

 clear grass-green. 



I went back to the limestone ridge at the southern 



