THROUGH THE YEAR 175 



impressive because of jagged and contorted outlines 

 and the way they have of lashing into white every 

 sea that breaks on them. The stack-rocks are 

 always impressive in storm. The long and short 

 islands, as they are called, on the tremendous coast 

 about Boscastle have a fearsomeness and majesty 

 which match those of high mountains : their isola- 

 tion and aloofness and the part they take in working 

 up the surf are grand ; and at other times, their 

 blackness in the midst of the serenest blue of 

 clearness and calm. 



But the Bass stands out distinctly among the 

 isolated rocks near the coast. The extreme abrupt- 

 ness of its start from the sea, and the sheerness 

 of its walls and its huge and cumbrous build mark 

 it out. Its bases are not only hid, they are hardly 

 hinted at a mere shelf at one or two points 

 suggesting that it is not sunk straight down with 

 fjord deepness and straightness. 



The Bass, moreover, has none of the stack-rock 

 beauty of broken and jagged outline. The Bass 

 looks an awkward pile ; and when I have seen it, it 

 has taken little of the loveliness of colour and tint in 

 which the air and water are steeped on a brilliant 

 day. Its dull green top and land side, and its 

 weather-stained wall black-brown and soiled grey 

 or dirty chalk hue, as seen from Tantallon and from 

 Canty Bay, catch little or no beauty from sea or 

 sun at this season. But what a bath of colour the 

 Bass is surrounded by after midday in December 

 when the sun shines from a cloudless sky ! If we 



