IV. 



APEIL. 



SHALL we explore the sands to-day ? A bright sandy 

 beach well exposed to the sea is no bad hunting-ground 

 for the naturalist, bare as it looks, and proverbial as is 

 its character for sterility," barren as the sand on the 

 sea-shore." And specially is it likely to be productive, 

 when, as is often the case, the wide reach of yellow 

 sand is interrupted by one or more isolated areas of 

 rough rocks. Goodrington Sands, lying in the hollow 

 of Torbay, afford just these conditions ; and thither will 

 we bend our steps this April morning. 



So we make our way along the dusty highroad, that 

 leads from Torquay southward, skirting the shore, now 

 and then getting peeps of the rocks and the retiring 

 tide, over the massive sea-walls, as the successive coves 

 open and again shut-in by bounding hedgerows as we 

 cross the bases of the intervening headlands. Wild 

 hyacinths are peeping among the rank foliage of the 

 arums and nettles ; and harts-tongue ferns, and prim- 



