JUNCTION OF GRANITE AND SHALE. 53 



bility of effecting an entrance, and on the best mode 

 of gaining access to it. Old Captain Jack and his 

 son, Captain Tom, agreed in thinking that the low 

 state of the water, for it was now spring-tide, would 

 permit our approach to the cavern on foot, but that 

 the surf would render it difficult for a boat to land, 

 which otherwise would have been the most pleasant 

 mode of reaching the spot. It was, therefore, resolved 

 that we should approach it from the landward side, 

 descending the cliffs at Benjamin's Chair. We wend- 

 ed our way, accordingly, as if we had been going to 

 the Castle, but turning short to the right, we found 

 ourselves at the edge of the precipice, in the middle 

 of the south end of the island above a shaUow bay 

 called Rattle's Landing-place. A line, drawn from 

 this spot to the landing-place on the eastern side, di- 

 vides the island geologically. All to the north of this 

 line, including the greater part of the island, is gran- 

 ite ; the little corner to the south-east of it is the gray 

 friable shale, common to North Devon. The junction 

 of the two structures is well defined down the cliff. 

 At the point of union copper ore has been found, in 

 sufficient quantity to warrant the formation of a shaft, 

 the erections of which were pointed out to us. 



A narrow track, easily overlooked by those who are 

 not familiar with it, leads down to a little grassy plat- 

 form. A huge perpendicular wall of granite forms 

 the back, thirty feet high, profusely clothed with gray 

 and orange-coloured lichens in loose shaggy tufts. A 

 semicircular horizon, dividing the blue expanse of sky 



