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between the flight of Hawks and Owls. Mr. CUMMING gave the 
following account of the Natural History of Cornwall, as observed 
by him during the vacation :— 
‘*The Natural History, as usual, has its main limits and distinctions, marked 
by geological boundaries. Thus there are in the county three sorts of districts : 
the granite, the slate, and the serpentine; and, extending over these, three 
distinct classes of fauna and flora; while to the mere tourist’s eye, they present 
three equally distinct and striking classes of scenery. The county being in no 
sense mountainous, hilly in parts, but chiefly flat, the great interest of the 
scenery rests on the cliffs. No one could help being struck by the different 
appearances presented by them, according to the rock of which they are built 
up. The serpentine having been thrust violently up in a state of fusion 
through the overlying strata, naturally seems to break up into masses very 
irregular in shape, and of very different density in its different parts. The 
consequence is that its parts behave differently when exposed to the action of 
wind and sea. The result is that, by a process of scooping out of the softer 
materials, caves are hollowed at the base of cliffs as much as 40 or 50 yards 
inwards. Two curious instances of this are noticeable in the Frying-pan at 
Cadgwith, and the Lion-den at the Lizard Point. 
‘In each of these, subterranean passages were hollowed till soft earth was 
reached ; this was rapidly washed away, and an inland landslip of 20—25 yards 
in diameter, was the result. Thus a pit was made open at one point to the sea 
by a passage, up which the waves washed every high tide. To the same cause, 
of unequal density, we must attribute the outlying masses of rock, such as Lion, 
Gull, and Steeple Rocks, as well as the caves and pillars streaked with red and 
green, for which Kynance has acquired its fame. 
** Leaving the Lizard, and passing as I did about the middle of last July to 
the Land’s End, where granite prevails, the one thing which struck me most 
was the general regularity in form of the individual masses. All jagged edges 
and irregular corners had been ground down, so that the masses presented a 
regular irregularity of rounded forms. This I attributed to the great homo- 
geneity of the granite, which almost naturally formed square or columnar blocks, 
exposing at every point a surface of the same hardness to the influence of the 
weather, Anything like an edge would soon become rounded down by 
wearing on both faces. 
‘* Passing up the north coast, we come to yet another scenic effect, perhaps 
on the whole the grandest of the three, I mean in the slate district. 
‘Nowhere have I seen cliffs in grandeur comparable with those near Tintagel, 
where the rugged and flinty slate decends precipitously into the sea, from cliffs 
200 or 300 feet high, so steep that one can often throw a stone from the edge 
into deep water, while every peak, standing out in profile, can be resolved, 
often in more than one way, into grotesque imitations of the human face, as a 
rule remarkable for massive brows and more or less snub noses. j 
** But to pass on, in reviewing the natural history the first remarkable fact is 
the peculiarity of the productions of the Lizard district. Here is the only spot 
in the country where serpentine crops up, and accordingly we find a fauna and 
flora almost peculiarly its own. We havea repetition of all our old genera, 
but when we look closer we find them represented by quite distinct species. 
Buttercups abound (perhaps more commonly than elsewhere, ) but we find them 
to consist exclusively of 2. Azrsutus. Charlock to all appearance abounds, 
but on examination it proves to be S¥zapis ngra and Raphanus maritimus. 
neither of them at all common plants elsewhere. ‘The whole district consists, 
at first sight, of nothing but a barren moorland, covered in profusion with rica, 
But there it is that Avica vagans thrives and abounds almost to the exclusion of 
every other plant ; and most remarkable it is to trace the limits of the serpentine 
district by the occurrence of this plant, so exactly marked that on the road from 
Helston to the Lizard one can see the exact spot at which the ordinary vegeta- 
