SEA-CAVERN. 65 



in, little master !" And now, as we take our seats on 

 the clean canvas cushions astern, the boat's bottom 

 scrapes along with a harsh grating noise over the white 

 shingle-pebbles, and we are afloat. 



First to the caverns just outside yonder lofty point. 

 The lowness of the tide will enable us to take the boat 

 into them, and the calmness of the sea will preclude 

 much danger of her striking the rocks ; especially as 

 watchful Bate will be on the alert, boat-hook in hand, 

 to keep her clear. Now we lie in the gloom of the 

 lofty arch, gently heaving and sinking and swaying on 

 the slight swell, which, however smooth the surface, is 

 always perceptible when you are in a boat among rocks, 

 and which invests such an approach with a danger that 

 a landsman does not at all appreciate. Yet the water, 

 despite the swell, is glassy, and invites the gaze down 

 into its crystalline depths, where the little fishes are 

 playing and hovering over the dark weeds. The sides 

 of the cavern rise around us in curved planes, washed 

 smooth and slippery by the dashing of the waves of 

 ages, and gradually merge into the massive angles and 

 projections and groins of the broken roof, whence a tuft 

 or two of what looks like samphire depends. But 

 notice the colonies of the Smooth Anemone or Beadlet 1 



1 Actinia mesembryanthemum, represented in Plate vn., at the lower 

 right-hand corner. 



