THE WONDEES OF THE SHORE. 181 



zone to that of the Tropics. And here and there, 

 even at half-tide level, deep rock-basins, shaded from 

 the sun and always full of water, keep up in a higher 

 zone the vegetation of a lower one, and afford in 

 miniature an analogy to those deep " barrancos" which 

 split the high table-land of Mexico, down whose awful 

 cliffs, swept by cool sea-breezes, the traveller looks 

 from among the plants and animals of the temperate 

 zone, and sees far below, dim through their evei- 

 lasting vapour-bath of rank hot steam, the mighty 

 forms and gorgeous colours of a tropic forest. 



" I do not wonder," says Mr. Gosse, in his charm- 

 ing " N"aturalist's Eambles on the Devonshire Coast," 

 (p. 187) ''that when Southey had an opportunity of 

 seeing some of those Ijeautiful quiet basins hollowed 

 in the living rock, and stocked with elegant plants and 

 animals, having all the charm of novelty to his eye, 

 they should have moved his poetic fancy, and found 

 more than one place in the gorgeous imagery of his 

 Oriental romances. Just listen to him : 



" * It was a garden still beyond all price. 



Even yet it was a place of paradise ; 



* * * * 



K 2 



