Cornish Cliffs in Spring 47 



their fullest tide of moisture on the slopes of the south 

 there are spells of weather which many people find 

 enervating. It is these days of steamy warmth 

 that stimulate the plant life of the southern cliffs 

 and combes to its almost tropical vigour. When a 

 warm sea-fog enfolds the shore, the atmosphere 

 approaches that of an orchid-house or a Central 

 American forest, and the flowers and verdure 

 luxuriate in the teeming air. The deep lanes are 

 half-filled with the profusion of the bracken and 

 lady-ferns, which seem to lick up the atmosphere 

 with their long fronds. There, too, may linger the 

 osmunda fern, now almost eradicated. From such 

 a vapour-bath all vegetation emerges with new lustre 

 and vigour ; and it is not till such a day of steeping 

 weather settles on the cliffs that we fully realize the 

 reason for that wealth of flower and foliage which 

 they offer to brighter skies. 



At times the sea-reek lasts unbrokenly for many 

 hours together ; but often successive tracts of fog 

 come rolling over from seaward every hour or two, 

 with intervals of an unclouded sky. As we stand 

 on some furze-scented headland, fronting a long 

 perspective of sun-bathed coast-line, the dreary 

 note of the fog-signal on the distant Eddystone is 

 borne in for an hour at a time. Thick weather is 

 drifting out at sea in the pathway of the ocean 

 vessels. Sometimes, too, where a moment ago we 

 watched the long beak of some point a few miles 

 distant, with the white houses sheltering in its bay, 

 now, on looking round again, that part of the picture 

 has vanished from beneath the sun. Then we trace 



