170 RAMBLES OF A NATURALIST. 



One feels a very slight degree of reluctance to 

 leave a bed of this kind, and we consequently found 

 no difficulty in beginning our labours by break of 

 day. M. Blanchard betook himself, well provided 

 with nets and other apparatus for hunting insects, 

 to the landward side of the peninsula; while M. 

 Edwards, embarking on board the Santa Rosalia, 

 proceeded in search of marine animals ; and I under- 

 took to explore the beach of the peninsula. My 

 task was not an easy one, for the village was entirely 

 surrounded by a broad margin of strangely dislocated 

 calcareous rock. At some points the stone resembled 

 an enormous sponge, torn and cracked into fissures 

 and irregular cavities, and studded with bristling 

 points. At other parts of the beach, the rock seemed 

 to be split into thin laminae, regularly separated by 

 long and deep fissures. There was no alternative 

 but to move incessantly up and down, like a man 

 alternately ascending and descending a height of two 

 or three feet, or to stride over chasms while you 

 maintained your equilibrium upon some needle-like 

 projection, or upon a rocky ledge as sharp as the 

 blade of a knife. Although accustomed from child- 

 hood to climb rocks, I was not prepared for such 

 unusual difficulties, and I found that it required the 

 utmost care to avoid meeting with some dangerous 

 accident. 



Yet this peculiarity in the character of the rock 

 was in itself a guarantee of its riches. In proportion 

 as these fissures penetrated further into the sea they 

 became converted into so many small basins, while 

 the sharp edged rocks which rose around them served 



