ON OTTERY EAST HILL. 119 



beech-trees which have triumphed over wintry winds glow with 

 colour, while ivy hangs in wind-torn festoons from the higher 

 ones, backed up by stunted larches ; and then comes the sea of 

 Scotch firs which everywhere on these heights surges more or 

 less on to the heath. That murmur which is so dear to moun- 

 tain lovers sighs eternally through them, now flooding the red 

 stems and writhing branches with a full tide of aerial music, 

 now whispering gently higher up in the grey-blue foliage, 



" Powerful almost as vocal harmony 

 To stay the wanderer's steps, and soothe his thoughts ; " 



and now again in low, deep swells recurrent, like the beatings 

 of the great world-heart. Who would not throw himself down 

 on the heather here, and indulge a momentary day-dream ? 



But, even in Devon, spring sunshine, though bright, is fleet- 

 ing, like an old acquaintance in a hurry, who grasps your hand 

 and speeds on his way. It is time to turn from artistic studies 

 to the physical characteristics of the district. A glance at the 

 barren table-land on which we stand, and the fertile vale below, 

 shows that water has mainly caused their configuration. We 

 trip over a fossil sea-egg (echinus) which tells the same tale. 

 To the north-east a hill of marvellous blue tints, with lofty 

 scarped sides, closes the view. It is the termination nominally 

 of the Black Down Range, and those white-scarped walls are 

 the entrances to the celebrated scythe-stone quarries. But 

 geologically* the hill on which we stand, and, indeed, the whole 

 of the high land between the Golden Cap, near Lyme Regis, 

 and the Haldon Hills (the first range on our left beyond the 

 estuary of the Exe) forms a portion of this Black Down range. 

 This East Hill, together with its brother, the West Hill, which 

 rises opposite on different sides of the Otter river, belongs to 

 the green-sand formation. It underlies the chalk of that grand 



* See a Paper on the Geology of this district, by the late lamented Rev. 

 R. Kirwan, in Rev. Dr. Cornish's Short Notes on Otterv St. Mary. 



