48 LUNDY ISLAND. 



coloured stonecrop ; the thrift, the bladder-campion, 

 and the samphire, were springing out of the crevices, 

 and the yellow blossoms of the long-rooted cat's-ear, 

 closely resembling those of the dandelion, were mingled 

 with them. On some of the ledges far down were 

 growing large tufts of a coarse plant, which our friend 

 informed us is occasionally used as a substitute for 

 spinach ; we could not get near enough to examine it 

 accurately, but it was probably one of the goosefoots. 



The distant bottom of this hole was strewn with 

 large blocks of alabaster, some of them twenty feet 

 high. Among these there is, at one side, a narrow, 

 door-like opening, which leads, by a natural tunnel, 

 to the beach at the foot of the cliffs. This affords 

 the only means of access into the chasm ; and is, from 

 the precipitous character of the coast, available only 

 with a boat, and in calm weather, for when there is 

 any swell the sea dashes furiously into the tunnel. 



One part of the margin of the chasm forms a 

 slender ridge like a wall, dividing it from a very steep 

 declivity ; along this precarious path one or two of 

 our party scrambled on hands and knees, to gain a 

 better view of the recesses of the abyss. While we 

 were thus engaged a falcon flew out, whose red back 

 and wings, as he emerged into the sunlight, shewed 

 him to be the kestrel : he hovered a while in the air 

 over Ins den, facing the wind like a ship at anchor, 

 in that peculiar manner which has obtained for this 

 bird the appellation of windhover. 



We turned our gaze seaward. There we beheld a 



