336 AN ANGLER'S RAMBLES 



SEA-FISHING. 



Concluded. 



THE coast of Fife, compared with a large stretch of our sea- 

 margins, is, generally speaking, with respect to scenery, of an 

 unpretending character. There are some points belonging to it, 

 however, which are far from being destitute of sublimity ; no- 

 thing, I admit, like what is possessed of this feature by many of 

 our grand old headlands, such as St. Abb's or the Bullers of 

 Buchan, or the Stacks of Duncansbay, or those massive break- 

 waters extending down from Cape Wrath to the Solway, which 

 stem the storms of the Atlantic. Still the term ' sublime ' may 

 very appropriately be applied to them, even in their usual bear- 

 ing. Of those coast-line attractions, one or two of the more 

 prominent adjoin the small town called the EarPs-Ferry, near 

 which I engaged some years ago summer quarters, and took a 

 humble part in the crusade ever carrying on betwixt pole and 

 pole against the subjects of the briny sea-god. In particular, 

 there is a huge wall of rock, nearly two hundred feet in height, 

 Kincraig by name, lying about a mile to the westward, perforated 

 with caves, one of which, accessible at low water, tradition re- 

 ports to have been occupied by Macduff, Thane of Fife, as a 

 place of concealment from the vengeance of the usurper Macbeth. 

 The entrance to this retreat presents an imposing appearance. 

 On the cliff above, the eye may detect a falcon's nest securely 

 situated in a fissure of the crag. I observed its tenant one 

 evening in the act of making a successful stoop on what appeared 

 to be a young rabbit. The cave itself, in its present state, being 

 choked up with fragments of rock and masonry, is of no great 

 depth. There are other two natural excavations not far from it, 

 one of which, quaintly termed the Deil's Lug, promises to be a 

 subject of more lengthened investigation ; but it can only be 

 explored at the risk of a broken neck. Sea-caverns of the same 



