GRAND CLIFFS OF THE DE\ T ONSHIRE COAST. 199' 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

 BY THE SEA-SHOUE (continued), 



A Submerged Forest Grandeur of Devonshire Cliffs Castellated Walls A Natural Palace Collection of Sea-weeds The 

 Title a Miserable Misnomer The Bladder Wrack Practical Uses The Harvest-time for Collectors The Huge 

 Laminaria-Good for Knife-handles Marine Rope The Red-Seeded Group Munchausen's Gin Tree Beaten The 

 Coralline a Vegetable Beautiful Varieties Irish Moss The Green Seeds Hints on Preserving Sea-weeds The 

 Boring Pholas How they Drill Sometimes through each other The Spinous Cockle The " Red-noses "Hundreds of 

 Peasantry Saved from Starvation "Rubbish," and the difficulty of obtaining it Results of a Basketful The Contents 

 of a Shrimper's Net Miniature Fish of the Shore. 



MR. GOSSE tells us in his " Tenby," of a veritable submerged forest near Amroth. Pieces of 

 soft and decayed wood constantly come to the surface, and are called by the peasantry " sea 

 turf." It is very commonly perforated by the shells of Pholas Candida, being ensconed therein 

 as closely as they can lie without mutual invasion. Other pieces are quite solid, resisting the 

 knife like the good old oak timbers of a ship. Occasionally, during storms, whole trunks and 

 roots and branches are torn away, come floating to the surface of the sea, and are cast on the 

 shore. Some of them have been found "at the recess of the autumnal spring tides,, which have 

 marks of the axe still fresh upon them, proving that the encroachment of the sea has been 

 effected since the country was inhabited by civilised man." Several kinds of trees, including 

 elm, willow, alder, poplar, and oak, have been found among the large fragments cast up. 

 An account of the encroachments of the sea on various parts of our coasts would fill a 

 large volume. 



Mr. Gosse well describes some of the Devonshire coast scenery. " Now/' says he, " we 

 are under Lidstep Head, a promontory in steepness and height rivalling its ' proud ' opponents. 

 I never before saw cliffs like these. The stratification is absolutely perpendicular, and as 

 straight as a line, taking the appearance at every turn of enormous towers, castles, and abbeys, 

 in which the fissures bear the closest resemblance to loopholes and doors. Great areas open 

 enclosed as if with vast walls. The sea surface was particularly smooth, and we ventured to- 

 pull into one of these, exactly as if into a ruined castle or vast abbey ; chamber opening beyond 

 chamber, bounded and divided by what I must call walls of rock, enormous in height, and as 

 straight as the architect's plumb would have made them, with the smooth sea for the floor. 

 If the tide had been high, instead of being low-water of a spring tide, we might have rowed 

 nil about this great enclosed court; but as it was, the huge square upright rocks were appearing 

 above water, like massive altars and tables. The sea was perfectly clear, and we could look 

 down to the foundations of the precipices where the purple-ringed Medusa3 were playing. 

 Altogether, it was a place of strange grandeur ; we felt as if we were in a palace of the 

 sea genii, as if we were where we ought not to be, and when a gull shrieked over our 

 heads, and uttered his short, hollow, mocking laugh, Ave started and looked at one another 

 as though something uncanny had challenged us, though the sun was shining broadly over 

 the tops of those Cyclopean walls. 



" We left this natural palace with regret ; but the tide was near its lowest ebb, and 

 I wished to be on the rocks for whatever might be obtainable in natural history. The 

 lads, therefore, gave way, and we swiftly shot past this coast of extraordinary sublimity. 



