308 THE DEATH-STONE. 



Hearing no voice save of the Ocean-flood, 

 Which roars for ever on the restless shores ; 



Or, visiting their solitary caves. 

 The lonely sound of winds, that moan around, 



Accordant to the melancholy waves. 



Kehama, XV. 8. 



The southern boundary of this Bay is formed by a 

 promontory, which juts out far into the sea ; the 

 angle where the coast abruptly bends to the south- 

 ward. From the point, a long line of sunken rocks 

 projects, at the extremity of Avhich is an insulated 

 rock, called Morte Stone, or the Eock of Death. 

 This name is supposed to owe its origin to ancient 

 Norman mariners, and to have been given in allusion 

 to the extraordinary fatality of this iron-bound shore. 

 Partly owing to the form of the coast, partly to the 

 fogs which so frequently prevail in winter, but chiefly 

 to the set of the currents, this rock has always been 

 infamous in the annals of shipwreck. Scarcely a 

 winter passes, without one or more vessels striking 

 upon it ; and to touch it is almost equivalent to 

 immediate destruction. The months of Januarv and 

 Februarv of last vear witnessed the loss of five vessels 

 on this point. One of them was the occasion of a 

 daring and successful exploit of which this little Bay 

 was the scene. 



It was on the seventeenth of the former month, 

 that the ship " Thomas Crisp," of Bristol, struck on 

 the Morte Stone in a thick fog, and immediately went 

 to pieces. The crew, ten in number, had recourse to 

 their boat, though ignorant of the character of the 



