THE BREEZE ON BEACHY HEAD 207 



approach, talking in the language of flags with the watch 

 on the summit of the Head. 



Once now and then the great Orient pauses on her 

 outward route to Australia, slowing her engines : the 

 immense length of her hull contains every adjunct of 

 modern life ; science, skill, and civilisation are there. She 

 starts, and is lost sight of round the cliff, gone straight 

 away for the very ends of the world. The incident is 

 forgotten, when one morning, as you turn over the news- 

 paper, there is the Orient announced to start again. It 

 is like a tale of enchantment; it seems but yesterday 

 that the Head hid her from view; you have scarcely 

 moved, attending to the daily routine of life, and scarce 

 recognise that time has passed at all. In so few hours 

 has the earth been encompassed. 



The sea-gulls as they settle on the surface ride high 

 out of the water, like the mediaeval caravals, with their 

 sterns almost as tall as the masts. Their unconcerned 

 flight, with crooked wings unbent, as if it were no matter 

 to them whether they flew or floated, in its peculiar 

 jerking motion somewhat reminds one of the lapwing 

 the heron has it, too, a little as if aquatic or water-side 

 birds had a common and distinct action of the wing. 



Sometimes a porpoise comes along, but just beyond 

 the reef; looking down on him from the verge of the 

 cliff, his course can be watched. His dark body, wet 

 and oily, appears on the surface for two seconds; and 

 then, throwing up his tail like the fluke of an anchor, 

 down he goes. Now look forward, along the waves, 

 some fifty yards or so, and he will come up, the sunshine 

 gleaming on the water as it runs off his back, to again 

 dive, and reappear after a similar interval. Even when the 

 eye can no longer distinguish the form, the spot where he 

 rises is visible, from the slight change in the surface. 



The hill receding in hollows leaves a narrow plain be- 



