THE LAND'S END. 207 



wounds, a little fish of four or five inches long 1 , is another denizen of the sands. So also the 

 young- of the Skate. The Wrasse, the Globy, the Blenny, and many other small fish, are 

 met with in the pools and caverns of our shores. 



Of crabs, prawns, and crustaceans, of shell-fish and rock fish, and the mollusca generally, 

 these pages have already given a sufficient account. They are even more at home in the 

 sea than on the shore. 



CHAPTER XIX. 



SKETCHES OF OUR COASTS. CORNWALL. 



The Land's End Cornwall and her Contributions to the Navy The Great Botallack Mine Curious Sight Outwardly 

 Plugging Out the Atlantic Ocean The Roar of the Sea Heard Inside In a Storm The Miner's Fears The 

 Loggan Stone A Foolish Lieutenant and his Little Joke The Penalty The once-feared Wolf Rock Revolving 

 Lights Are they Advantageous to the Mariner Smuggling in Cornwall A Coastguardsman Smuggler Landing 

 150 Kegs under the Noses of the Officers A Cornish Fishing-town Looe, the Ancient The Old Bridge Beauty of 

 the Place from a Distance Closer Inspection Picturesque Streets The Inhabitants Looe Island and the Rats 

 A Novel Mode of Extirpation The Poor of Cornwall Better Off than Elsewhere -Mines and Fisheries Working 

 on " Tribute "Profits of the Pilchard Season Cornish Hospitality and Gratitude. 



THE Land's End has a particular interest to the reader of this work, for its very name 

 indicates a point beyond which one cannot go, except we step into the great ocean. Round 

 the spot a certain air of mystery and interest also clings. What is this ending place like ? 

 It is the extreme western termination of one of the most rugged of England's counties, 

 one which has produced some of her greatest men, and has always been intimately connected 

 with the history of the sea. Cornwall has afforded more hardy sailors to the royal navy 

 and merchant marine than any other county whatever, Devonshire, perhaps, excepted. 

 One must remember her sparse population in making any calculation on this point. Her 

 fishermen and miners are among the very best in the world. Some sketches therefore of 

 Cornish coasts and coast life may be acceptable."* 



One of the great features of the Land's End is the famed Botallack Mine, which stretches 

 out thousands of feet beyond the land, and under the sea. Wilkie Collins, in an excellent 

 description of his visit to the old mine says : " The sight was, in its way, as striking 

 and extraordinary as the first view of the Cheese- Wring itself. Here we beheld a scaffolding 

 perched on a rock that rose out of the waves there a steam-pump was at work raising 

 gallons of water from the mine every minute, on a mere ledge of land half down the steep 

 cliff side. Chains, pipes, conduits, protruded in all directions from the precipice; rotten- 

 looking wooden platforms, running over deep chasms, supported great beams of timber and 

 heavy coils of cable; crazy little boarded houses were built where gulFs nests might have 

 been found in other places. There did not appear to be a foot of level space anywhere, 

 for any part of the works of the mine to stand upon; and yet, there they were, fulfilling 

 all the purposes for which they had been constructed, as safely and completely, on rocks 



* This account is mainly derived from Wilkie Collins's " Rambles beyond Railways," and the Rev. C. A. 

 Johns' s " "Week at the Lizard." 



