FAR AND NEAR 



stitched upon it. Scattered about were the yellow 

 poppies, a yellow and a red pc(ilcularis, and a rare 

 and curious blue flower in heads, the name of which 

 I have forgotten. On the highest point the blue and 

 purple astrapjalus covered large areas, but the most 

 novel of all the flowers was a species of little silene 

 with a bluish ribbed flower precisely like a minia- 

 ture Chinese lantern. 



The highest point of the island was enveloped 

 most of the time in fog and cloud. While groping 

 my way upon one of these cloud summits, probably 

 a thousand feet above the sea which flowed at its 

 base, I came suddenly upon a deep cleft or chasm, 

 which opened in the moss and flowers at my feet and 

 led down between crumbling rocky walls at a fear- 

 ful incline to the beach. It gave one a sense of peril 

 that made him pause quickly. The wraiths of fog 

 and mist whirling through and over it enhanced its 

 dreadful mystery and depth. Yet I hovered about it, 

 retreating and returning, c juite fascinated by the con- 

 trast between the smooth flowery carpet upon which 

 I stood and the terrible yawning chasm. When tht 

 fog lifted a little and the sun gleamed out, I looked 

 down this groove into the ocean, and Tennyson's 

 line came to mind as accurately descriptive of the 

 scene : — 



** The wrinkled sea beneath him crawls." 



Another curious effect was the appearance of the 



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