2:22 THE SEA. 



The Cornish coast, in spite of its picturesque character and points of interest, is not 

 so well known by tourists and artists as it should be. 



Falmouth has an interesting history. When Sir Walter Raleigh visited it on his return 

 from the Guinea coast, where guinea-pigs came from, he found but one solitary house outside 

 of the family mansion of an ancient county family. His quick eye noted the admirable 

 harbour and entrance, the former capable of holding 500 vessels, and he represented to the 

 Council the advantage of making it a port. From that time its fortunes grew ; soon it became 

 a packet station for the arrival and departure of the foreign mails. Now on the lofty headland, 

 St. Anthony's Point, a lighthouse, flashing brilliantly every twenty seconds, serves to guide 

 the entering ships and steamships, which have sometimes numbered 2,000 in one year. It has 

 a patent slip, dry and other docks, and all conveniences for shipping interests. Connected with 

 the town is an extensive oyster and trawling fishery, and it has a little fleet of pilot cutters. 

 It has a sailors' Bethel, with library and reading-room ; and the Royal Cornwall Sailors' 

 Home is a prominent institution. Another of the "institutions" of Falmouth might be 

 copied to advantage elsewhere. Every boatman who rescues a drowning person is entitled 

 to receive a reward of one guinea. 



The Rev. C. A. Johns tells us that near Gunwalloe, Cornwall, the land rises, and the 

 coast becomes bold for a short distance. The cliffs, though not lofty, are precipitous, and offer 

 no chance of escape to any unfortunate vessel which may chance to be driven in within reach of 

 the rocks. About the year 1785, a vessel laden with wool, and having also on board two and a 

 half tons of money, was driven ashore a few hundred yards west of the church, and soon went 

 to pieces. Ever since, at intervals, after a storm, dollars have been picked up on the beach, 

 but never in sufficient numbers to compensate for the time wasted in the search. No measures,, 

 however, on a large scale for recovering the precious cargo were adopted until the year 1845, 

 when people were startled to hear that a party of adventurers were going to sink a dollar-mine 

 in the sea. 



This is not the only unsuccessful search for treasure which has been made at Gunwalloe. 

 In the sand-banks near the church, or, as others say, at Kennack Cove, the notorious buccaneer 

 Captain Avery is reported to have buried several chests of treasure previous to his leaving 

 England on the voyage from which he never returned. So strongly did this opinion prevail 

 that Mr. John Knill, collector of the Customs at St. Ives, procured, about the year 1770, a 

 grant of treasure trove, and expended some money in a fruitless search. 



The vessel had gone to pieces between two rocks at a short distance from the base of the 

 cliff, and here it was proposed to construct a kind of coffer-dam, from which the water was to 

 be pumped out, and the dollars to be picked up at leisure. Mad though the scheme was, 

 operations were actually commenced ; a path was cut in the face of the cliff, iron rods were 

 fixed into the rocks, and several beams of timber laid down, when a breeze set in from the 

 south-west, and in the course of a few hours the work of as many weeks was destroyed. The 

 wood-work was ripped up as effectually as though it had been a mere wicker cage, and the 

 coast was soon lined with the fragments. It is not likely the attempt will be renewed. The 

 speculators were in this instance strangers, which accounts for the enterprise having been taken 

 in hand at all, for any one acquainted with the coast must have been well aware that though 

 the sea is tolerably calm sometimes for many consecutive days, it is never so for a period long; 



