908 



extends inwards in the direction of the lights. On the night of the 

 19th of February hist an irregularly elliptical piece of ground, fifty or 

 sixty feet in diameter, and at a considerable distance from the edge 

 of the cliff, suddenly, and without giving any previous indication of 

 its being insecure, sank, and formed a rugged hole thirty feet deep. 

 It appears that the roof of the cavern gave way, owing to the loose- 

 ness of the material of which it was composed : a gentleman who was 

 on the spot the next morning informed me that the sea was tinged for 

 a considerable distance by the red soil which had been dislodged. 

 The depth of the hole is daily increasing ; even the last week has 

 made a perceptible difference: and a large mass on the landward side 

 of the hole is becoming detached, and will undoubtedly fall shortly. 

 How near it may come to the light-house is a matter for the calcula- 

 tion of the Trinity-board. What makes this occurrence particularly 

 interesting is, that at Cadgwith, a village three miles to the north, 

 there is an immense funnel-shaped depression in the cliff, into the 

 bottom of which the sea enters every tide under a natural arch-way ; 

 and there can be little doubt that this, " The Frying-pan," as it is 

 called, owes its formation to a similar subsidence of the soil into a 

 cave, the sides of which have been in the course of time enlarged by 

 the crumbling of its walls, and the detritus carried out through its 

 mouth. I think it highly probable that another winter will convert 

 the pit under the light-house into a " Frying-pan :" but whether the 

 lights will be endangered must of course depend on the dimensions 

 which it attains. It goes by the name of " Lions' Den." 



July 9th. — I have had the good fortune to discover another station 

 for Trifolium Bocconi, four miles off from the old Cadgwith station, 

 on a sloping piece of ground near a cove called Cairn William, or 

 Cathillian, between the Lizard Head and Kynance Cove. On the 

 same bank I also discovered in great abundance, but past flowering, 

 Trifolium strictum. So abundant are the Leguminosse at this spot 

 that I covered with my hat Trifolium Bocconi, T. strictum, T. Moli- 

 nerii, T. scabrum, T. striatum, T. arvense, Lotus hispidus and An- 

 thyllis vulneraria var. Dillenii. Had the rim been a little wider I 

 might have included Genista tinctoria and Lotus corniculatus. I 

 have since found T. strictum in abundance on the cliff between Pis- 

 tol meadow and the (old) Lizard Head. I enclose specimens for 

 identification from both localities. 



C. A. Johns. 



Landewednack, near Helston, Cornwall, 

 July 3rd, 1847. 



