HOLBORN CLIFFS. 127 



" But the matter is sadly altered when, after playing 

 for some three hours at Blind Man's Buff, he looks round 

 and finds that the sun has gone down, that a cold wind 

 is whistling along the crags, that 'gloomy night is 

 gathering fast,' and that he finds he must begone 1 

 When he looks at the result of his toil, he is forced to 

 sigh at its very meagreness when contrasted with his 

 splendid opening dreams. Then, with a shrug of his 

 shoulders, he trusses up his burden, whistles ' o'er the 

 lave o't,' speeds up the brow of the hill, and sees before 

 him the six or eight miles that he has to walk between 

 him and his home, then it is that he desponds, and 

 sighs 



" ' From the regions of the dead 

 Long and painful is the way.' 



" As intimated in my last palaver, I returned to Hoi- 

 born Head, and after digging out the two pieces of bone 

 left by me on the previous night, I explored a little 

 longer, and found the pieces of very stout bones sketched 

 on the other side. [Six pieces of fossil bone are sketched 

 in pencil one is the ' tail half of the Coccosteus,' two 

 are warty bones.] These are all taken from the point 

 of the promontory. I think they must have belonged 

 to some very large fish, similar to those which had the 

 very thick skull-caps, found at Thurso East." 



With respect to the cliffs of Holborn Head, he says 

 " They are rugged and fearful-looking in many places. 

 They are hollowed out by the winter tempests. The 

 whole force of the North Sea breaks in violently upon 

 the rocks, while a strong tide runs continually eithei 



