310 THE LIFE OF PHILIP HENRY GOSSE. 



and down the cliffs which each visit to the beach entailed. 

 Roundham Head, in the centre of Tor Bay, and Maiden- 

 combe, half-way between Hope's Nose and the estuary of 

 the Teign, were at this time his favourite hunting-grounds ; 

 but he went even further afield, running down by boat to 

 Prawle Point and Berry Head, or to the rocks that front 

 the black creeks at the mouth of the Dart. Regardless of 

 his sixty-seven summers, he would strip, on occasion, and 

 work like a youth in the cold pools of the slate, balanced 

 carefully on a slippery foothold of oar-weed or tulse. 

 Here are some extracts taken at random from his journal 

 of 1 8;6:— 



''August y. — I went to Dartmouth by earliest train, 

 "intending to hire a sailing-boat to run down to the 

 " Prawle. Old Jones, however, declared it to be im- 

 " practicable, from wind and swell ; I therefore made him 

 "pull me out to Black Rock, and thence to Combe Point. 

 "Near this latter I obtained a group of the loveliest 

 " Corynactis I ever saw ; the whole body and disc of 

 "the richest emerald, the colour very positive and (so 

 " to say) opaque, tentacles rich lilac-rose. Returning, 

 " I examined some overhanging rocks near Compass 

 " Cove. On one ledge of a yard square, I saw nearly 

 "a dozen of white daisy-like anemones; but eighteen 

 "inches below the surface, and thus beyond reach, 

 " though easily procurable if the tide had been good, 

 " but it was very poor. Near the same place I saw 

 " others, and tried to get some, but failed. At length I 

 "obtained two noble specimens of Sagartia sphyrodeta, 

 " with bright orange disc. From a pool of fuci I had 

 " dipped a rare prawn, which I would not keep, and a 

 " number of Hippolyte varians. 



''November 3. — I wrote Harris yesterday to meet me 

 " v/ith a boat this morning at 10.50. But on my arrival 



