CHASE OF A SMUGGLER. 35 



were alternately lost in the hollows, or mounted on the 

 crests of the swell. After an hour's hard pulling, in which 

 two of us occasionally joined, we found ourselves under 

 the highest point of the cliff. The spot is marked by a 

 red streak, which commences at the velvet turf at the 

 summit, and is distinctly traceable down to the water's 

 edge. The height of the cliff is 615 feet; its face is 

 nearly perpendicular ; yet, notwithstanding this, the sam- 

 phire-gatherers and the egg-collectors scale by means of 

 ropes nearly its whole surface. 



The men pointed out to us a king's cutter in chase of a 

 smuggler : they were so far out to sea as to have escaped 

 our notice altogether. The smuggler was a small dandy- 

 rigged fore-and-aft craft, of about fifty tons, her canvas 

 brown as though tanned. The cutter was twice the ton- 

 nage at least, with a tremendous mainsail, foresail, jib, 

 flying-jib and gaff-topsail, all as white as snow, and now 

 bright with the first light of morning. The fishermen told 

 us the smuggler had most likely landed her cargo at Hurst 

 Castle in the night, as she never would have been hovering 

 about the coast after daybreak with anything on board. 

 The sight was one of great interest to ourselves as well as 

 our companions, who were completely engrossed with it, 

 and loudly expressed their pleasure when they saw that the 

 cutter, spite of her superiority in canvas, was dropping 

 astern, and the distance between the two consequently in- 

 creasing. A puff of white smoke issued from the bow of 

 the cutter, it passed along the deck, and was speedily far 

 behind : the chase was hopeless ; the cutter tacked ; and 

 the report, reaching the shore, echoed among the rocks like 

 distant thunder. 



While engrossed in this animated chase, we had reached 



D 2 



