THE -WOXDEKS OF THE SHORE. 123 



fathoms. And -while I am enjoying with the 

 Une in my hand, what a dredger particularly 

 likes to feel, the vibration produced by the 

 instrument as it rumbles and scrapes over a 

 moderately rough bottom, telling that it is doing 

 its work weU, we will gaze with admiration on 

 this magnificent precipice of dazzling white that 

 rears its noble head behind us. It is the termi- 

 nation of that range of chalk hills which, with 

 some few interruptions, intersect the kingdom 

 from the Yorkshire coast to Dorset : and stands 

 in simple majesty, the snowy whiteness of its vast 

 face unvaried, except by the slanting lines which 

 mark the dipping strata running across it, and 

 which look so fine and so regular, as if they had 

 been drawn by the pen of a geometrician. 



. • • • 



*' But up with the dredge ; let us see our suc- 

 cess. It feels pretty heavy as it mounts, and 

 here, as it l>rcaks the surface, we can already 

 sec some bright-hued and active creatures in its 

 capacious bag. A wide board, resting on two 

 thwart?, serves for a table, and on this — a few of 

 the more delicate things, that ajjpear at a glance, 

 havinjr been first taken out — the whole contents 

 are poured. Tlie empty dredge is returned to the 



