NEMERTES BORLASII. 255 



CHAPTER XXV. 



NEMERTES BORLASII. 



" It does not belong to mankind to pronounce upon the per- 

 fections or imperfections, the use or the uselessness of what 

 has come from the hands of the Creator, or that the aspect or 

 dimensions of one creature has rendered it more worthy than 

 another of a place in the scale of beings." 



ABOUT four or five miles from South Shields, upon 

 the coast of Durham, is a locality called Marsden 

 Rocks, well known to every Northern naturalist, and 

 a favourite resort of pic-nic parties. It is a strange 

 place, and, although now many years since we visited 

 it, is associated in our mind with divers agreeable 

 reminiscences. The whole of that part of the coast 

 consists of magnesian limestone, which from its soft- 

 ness is easily worn away by the sea, and in many 

 places is hollowed out by the action of the waves into 

 extensive and picturesque caverns. In one of these, 

 remarkable for its size and numerous chambers, that 

 wind deeply into the limestone cliff, lived an old man, 

 called Peter (the only name by which he was ever 

 known to us), a queer fellow, half-smuggler, half- 

 publican, who had there ensconced himself, and, 

 partly by the excellence of his whiskey, partly by the 



