XII 
Roexy Coasts 
BEGIN. 
Bs NGL) Ae NS DS: 
the variety of their croaks and fcreams. Kittiwakes and Herring Gulls, Guille- 
mots and Black Guillemots, Auks, Puffins, Shaes, and Corvorants, are among the 
fpecies which refort hither. The notes of all fea-fow] are moft harfh and inhar- 
monious. J have often refted under rocks like thefe, attentive to the various 
founds over my head ; which, mixed with the deep roar of the waves flowly fwelling, 
and retiring from the yvaft caverns beneath, have produced a fineeffet. ‘The fharp 
voice of the Gulls, the frequent chatter of the Guillemots, the loud notes of the 
Auks, the fcream‘of the Herons, together with the deep periodical croak of the 
Corvorants, which ferves as a bafs to the reft, have often furnifhed me with a con- 
cert, which, joined to the wild fcenery {urrounding me, afforded in an high degree 
that fpecies of pleafure which refults from the novelty and the gloomy majefty of 
the entertainment. 
At Flamboreugh head commence the hard or rocky coafts of this fide of Great Bri- 
tain, which continue, with the interruption of a few fandy bays and low land, to the 
extremity of the kingdom. It often happens, that the bottom of the fea partakes 
of the nature of the neighboring element: thus, about the head, and a few miles 
to the northward (in places) the fhores are rocky, and the haunts of lobfters 
and other cruftaceous animals. From thefe ftrata a tract of fine fand, from one 
to five miles in breadth, extends floping eaftward, and from its edge to that of the 
Dogger-bank is a deep bottom, rugged, rocky, and cavernous, and in moft parts 
overgrown with corallines and fubmarine plants. 
This difpofttion of fhore gives to the inhabitants of this coaft the advantageous 
fifhery which they poffefs; for the fhore on one hand, and the edges of the © 
Dogger-bank on the other, like the fides of a decoy, give a direction to the im- 
menfe fhoals of the Cod genus, which annually migrate from the northern ocean, 
to vifit, refide, and fpawn, in the parts adjacent to our coafts. ‘They find plenty 
of food from the plants of the rocks, and the worms of the fand, and fecure 
fhelter for their fpawn in the cavernous part of the fcarry bottom. It is in the 
channel between the banks and the fhoresy in which the Cod are taken, or in 
the hollows between the Doggers and Well-bank ; for they do not like the agita- 
tion of the water on the fhallows. On the contrary, the Skates, the Holibuts, 
Flounders, and other flat fifh, bury themfelves in the fand, and fecure themfelves 
from the turbulence of the waves. 
An amazing fhoal of Haddocks vifit.this coaft periodically, generally about 
the tenth of December, and extend from the fhore near three miles in breadth, 
and in length from Flamborough head to Tinmouth caftle, perhaps further north. 
An army of a fmall fpecies of Shark, the Prckep, Br. Zool. iii. N° 40, flanks 
the outfide of this fhoal to prey upon it; for when the fifhermen caft their lines 
beyond 
