82 SCRABSTER ROADS. CHAP. vm. 



As you stand upon the top of the rocks in fine weather, 

 they seem to precipitate themselves into the sea, in 

 many cases overhanging the water. 



Inside of Holborn Head is Scrabster Eoads. Many 

 ships ride at anchor there while the wind blows hard 

 from the west. They are well protected by the head- 

 land, which juts out towards the north-east. Scrabster 

 Harbour is also comparatively safe. 



But when the wind blows from the north or north- 

 east, the ships riding at anchor there are in great danger. 

 The waves come in with great force. They come hissing 

 along with their fleece of froth, and break with violent 

 force upon the shore. They rebound again, dragging the 

 pebbles under them with a rattle, and to quote the words 

 of Hardy are like " a beast gnawing bones." 



After one of these storms, Dick went down to the 

 sea-shore to ascertain whether any of the secrets of 

 Nature had been laid bare. " We have had a terrible 

 storm here," he says ; " such a force of wind that I have 

 never felt the like, so terribly strong and continuous. 

 It has caused great disaster to the shipping. The 

 storm fairly whipped six vessels out of Scrabster Eoads, 

 and dashed them ashore to ruin. 



" When the wind abated, I went down to the shore, 

 and found a piece of old land strewed here and there 

 with prostrate hazel stems. I picked out of the clay five 

 nuts. How long it is since they grew I know not, but 

 it must have been ages ago. Perhaps geologists would 

 say that they grew when Britain stood thirty feet higher 

 than it does now. But that is all conjecture. Certainly 



