104 STUDIES OF NATURE 



steamers from the mainland and carried up on 

 to the mountains to be left there for the season. 

 This lane has a character of its own, and one 

 that suits the lonely burial-place beside it. It 

 is broken and straggling. Along each side you 

 will find the hemlock, the thistle, and the sorrel. 

 When night approaches the bats are always 

 overhead and usually an obese and unctuous- 

 looking toad will be seen creeping across the 

 path. All these things are connected with a 

 feeling of desolation ; but even here the tender- 

 ness and beauty of nature find expression in 

 the delicate harebell which waves its blossom 

 under the taller and coarser herbage. 



At the bottom of the lane, where you come 

 upon the shore, there is a patch of common 

 where the bracken and the furze grow on the 

 turf. Beyond this the South Burn, winding 

 down to the sea and turning acutely so as to 

 come at right angles with the shore, has thrown 

 up a bank of sand on which there has rested 



