RAPPAREE COVE. 839 



gigantic Hillsborough. The Cove itself is a spacious 

 area, almost locked in, being protected seaward by 

 rocks, and environed on three sides by cliffs, more 

 than usually lofty, and much too steep to be climbed. 

 In fact there is no access to it, when the tide is in, 

 but by a narrow foot-path, that has been cut in one 

 part of the rock, the entrance to which is guarded by 

 a gate. Precipitious as are these cliffs, however, they 

 are green with ivy, that trails and hangs in graceful 

 freedom over their surface, and with fern which grows 

 upon them in great luxuriance. Tufts of samphire 

 spring from the rugged ledges; and at the foot of the 

 cliffs, which jut out in projecting buttresses, like the 

 great spurs of the cotton-trees in tropical climates, 

 the white goose-foot was growing, with its large a-n 

 gular leaves curiously covered with a sort of web, 

 easily removeable with the fingers, and having on 

 their under surfaces an appearance and texture that 

 closely resembled fine flannel. There, too, was the 

 corn sow-thistle, a fine plant with large yellow flowers, 

 eminently characteristic of the season, for it was the 

 month of September. 



The floor of the cove is principally composed of 

 sand, which changes, as it approaches low-water mark, 

 to small shingle. Among the latter, the observant 

 stranger notices a quantity of yellow gravel, scattered 

 all along the water-line between tide-marks. This at 

 once strikes him as a remarkable feature, seeing that 

 nothing of the kind is found on other parts of this 

 coast, nor does any analogous fonnation exist in the 

 vicinity. 



On inquiry, he learns that these yellow pebbles are 



