68 SPRING ON THE DOWNS. 



the winter is past, the rain is over and gone ; the 

 flowers appear on the earth ; the time of the singing 

 of birds is come ; and the voice of the turtle is heard 

 in our land." I took my basket of collecting jars, 

 my hammer and chisel, in my hand, and determined to 

 explore some of the rocky coves that I had not yet 

 visited, for it was spring-tide. It is a favourable cir- 

 cumstance for the littoral naturalist on the Devonshire 

 coast, that lowest water on the days of spring-tide is 

 near the middle of the day. This is a point that 

 should be attended to in selecting a site for such re- 

 searches, as in some places the lowest water might 

 occur at a much less convenient hour of the day. 

 At Margate, at Portsmouth, and at Whitehaven for 

 example, it is about six o'clock in the morning and 

 evening on the days of new and full moon. 



It was exhilarating to walk over the lofty Babbi- 

 combe Downs, and gaze out upon the wdde expanse 

 of sea, its sparkling azure speckled over with ships 

 and boats whose white sails gleamed brilliantly beneath 

 the rays of the mounting sun. 



There lie the ships, 

 Their sails all loose, their streamers rolling out 

 With sinuous flow and swell, like water-snakes, 

 Curling aloft ; the waves are gay with boats. 

 Pinnace and barge and coracle ; — ^the sea 

 Swarms like the shore with life. O what a sight 

 Of beauty ! 



SOUTHEY. 



There was breeze enough to raise up a curling ripple 

 fringed here and there with a foaming mantle, and to 

 mark with a long line of white the loot of the red clifts 



