44 THE AQUARIAN NATURALIST. 



in hand, therefore, I set out, and with a fishing-basket 

 at my back and a wallet at my side, was prepared for 

 anything that might occur. The Lias cliffs with their 

 rich stores of Ammonites and Belemnites were on 

 one side of me; the Black- Scar with its periwinkles 

 (covins they call them there) and the sparkling sea on 

 the other. Merrily the waves rolled in, and cheerfully 

 they dashed themselves in spray upon the sable crags. 

 Brightly shone the sun upon the venerable pile of 

 St. Hilda as I passed beneath its sculptured aisles 

 a noble landmark, welcome to the eye of many a 

 weary sailor, and the sea-birds as they circled round 

 my head seemed to bear me welcome company. On 

 I went, dividing my attention pretty equally between 

 the present and the past sometimes gathering living 

 mollusca among the sea-beaten rocks ; sometimes ex- 

 huming Ammonites (the snake-stones of the Whitby 

 banner) from their awful graves; sometimes, as the 

 approaching tide came up, wetting my feet in the 

 advancing foam, and then again approaching the gi- 

 gantic cliffs, peeping about in hopes of descrying the 

 tail of a Teleosaurus projecting from their wave- 

 beaten front when suddenly, as the distance between 

 the margin of the sea and the face of the cliff began 

 sensibly to diminish, it became apparent that the 

 tide was rapidly coming in, and on looking forwards 

 toward the next headland, against which the waves 

 were already breaking, the agreeable conviction flashed 

 upon my mind that further advance was barred. 

 Judge however, gentle reader, what were the feelings 

 with which, on turning to go back, I saw that to retreat 

 was equally out of the question, and that, moreover, 



