330 THE MAIDEN-HAIR FERN. 



Capacious tide-pools occur among the rocks far 

 down the beach, presenting at low-water excellent 

 bathing pools, some of them large and deep enough 

 to swim in, and sheltered from the wind by surround- 

 ing walls of solid rock. I enjoyed the amenities of a 

 bathe in one of these, in whose pure waters Laminaria 

 saccharina and digitata, and Halidrys siliquosa^ 

 were waving, and the delicate crimson tufts of Rhody- 

 menia jiihata were fringing the sides, while colonies 

 of Aniliea cereiis were stretching abroad their green 

 and snaky tentacles. 



This little bay is one of the few recognised locali- 

 ties for the true maiden-hair fern ; and it so happened 

 that while I was looking about to discover a specimen 

 on the cliffs, I met with a gentleman who was here 

 with the same object. He, however, was better in- 

 structed where to procure it, and how ; for he had 

 brought servants with him, and had taken the trouble 

 to provide himself with a ladder, which he had reared 

 against the side of a glen or chine at the back of the 

 bay. Here, some fifteen or twenty feet up, among 

 the debris fallen from above, grows the maiden-hair 

 in little tufts, to obtain which without injury it is 

 necessary to detach fragments of the rock with a 

 hammer. 



Returning to the top of the green slope, I pursue 

 another path along the margin of the cliffs, over the 

 head of White Pebble Bay. The scenery, as I sit on 

 the turf at the edge, is most magnificent. There is a 

 dark gulley on the left, cleaving the rocks down to 

 the cove, and then, above this, immediately in front 

 of me, is a broad and rugged precipice of dark grey 



