52 LUNDY ISLAND. 



been beating on them perhaps for ages ; and the low- 

 est of them were rendered still more slippery by 

 the drapery of green and olive sea-weeds ( Ulvce and 

 Fuci) with which they were covered. It was, there- 

 fore, unpleasant and difficult, not to say hazardous, to 

 make way among them by climbing over the masses, 

 creeping under and between them, and leaping from 

 one to another. 



Nor was there much, on such a shore as this, either 

 of zoology or botany, to reward the search. Professor 

 Harvey has truly observed, that " on a shore com- 

 posed of granite rocks, where the masses are rounded 

 and lumpy, with few interstices or cavities in which 

 water will constantly lie, and presenting to the waves 

 sloping ridges along which the water freely runs up 

 and down, very few species of sea-weeds, and these 

 only of the coarsest kinds, are commonly to be met 

 with/'* 



However, we had had the pleasurable excitement 

 of overcoming the difficulties of the descent and the 

 exploration, and we had now to essay those of the 

 ascent. When we arrived at the top, our clothes and 

 hands were perfumed with the strong odour of the 

 milfoil, through whole beds of which we had been 

 penetrating ; we found ourselves, moreover, nearly wet 

 through with the moisture which yet loaded the herb- 

 age, from the dense fog of the preceding night. 



A mid-day dinner left the afternoon free for a visit 

 to the Seal Cave. A council was called on the practica- 



* Sea-side Book. p. 54. 



