388 Notes on Sport and Travel iv 



of a fish, — look at his racing head with its strong 

 regular teeth, and how his body fines away almost to 

 nothing to his arched tail ; no wonder he pulls and 

 fights and leaps so deftly out of the water. Another, 

 and many more, till the breeze comes down so 

 strongly as to make it too wet to work longer, so 

 'bout ship and run under the lee of the old Rock to 

 try for other game. 



It is dead calm here ; just a pleasant long glassy 

 swell that lifts our boat gently up and lets her slide 

 gently down its side. How the base of the Rock is 

 gnawed into caverns and fantastic holes, and fretted 

 gracefully with the calcareous deposits of ages, and 

 roofed by millions of pendent stalactites, lighted up 

 strangely by the strong sunlight reflected up from 

 the clear blue water flickering and flickering over 

 roof and side. We lay and enjoyed the surge and 

 swell and soft murmuring boom of the blue wave as 

 it glides up into the caverns and kisses their rocky 

 lips, and delivers its blow at the sturdy old Rock, 

 not in anger, — a sort of friendly dig in the ribs from 

 old Ocean to mother Earth, — and then the cool jingle, 

 musical and tinkling, of the out-suck, as the wave 

 retires again, and the pleasant dripping of the bright 

 crystal for a minute or two till a fresh wave surges 

 in. Out of this cave sweep flocks of pigeons swift 

 and smiting of wing, lighter coloured than our blue 

 rocks, and across their dark mouths flash and scream 

 brilliant kingfishers, lighting up the darkness with 

 glorious flashes of green light, like precious stones. 



