50 LITERARY PILGRIMAGES 



which are in strange contrast to the tiny pin 

 points of a softer, darker rock which one finds 

 evenly sprinkled through the white. This dark 

 rock softens to wind and weather first and leaves 

 these white cliffs honeycombed with the tiniest 

 of fissures, so that they are as rough to the hand 

 as sandpaper. Dykes of trap run through the 

 island, and as this rock too is softer than its casing 

 the winds and waves of centuries have worn it 

 away, leaving chasms down which you may walk 

 to the tide, between the sheer cliffs. One such 

 chasm runs quite across Appledore from east to 

 west near the northern end of the island, almost 

 cutting off a round dome of granite from its fel- 

 low rock. The soil lies rich in this narrow hollow 

 between ledges, and many things grow in it, lush 

 with leaves and beautiful with bloom. Here the 

 shadbush had already ripened its fruit. Here 

 the island's one apple tree grows vigorously, 

 though it dares not lift its head above the level 

 of the rocks against which it snuggles, lest the 

 zero gales of winter nip it off. Crowding round 

 it grow wild cherry and wild rose, elder and 

 sumac and huckleberry and chokeberry, all eager 



