30 ANNUAL EXCTJKSION. 



The geologist will find at the Black Head that interesting rock, green 

 elvan or porphyry. It also occurs in the two headlands to the west, viz., 

 "Roundezvous and Van. Close by there is that fine vein of freestone, known 

 as Pentewan stone. St. Austell Church and tower and Mevagissey font are 

 supposed to have been formed from stones of this vein. To the north of 

 the Black Head are the slate quarries which supplied St. Austell and 

 Mevagissey with slate for their houses before Delabole came to the front. 

 In the Black Head haven (or Hoan, as the fishermen calls it) there is a dull 

 white stone, much like vitrified freestone, and not far from it a vein of stone 

 with which I am unacquainted. To the antiquary we can show the Giant's 

 Heaps. The legend of them does not appear in Hunt's collection of the 

 romances and drolls of the West of England. The Giant, it is said, raised 

 the heaps in lifting his spade out of the ground, when about to throw his 

 spadeful of earth across the bay to the Gribbin Headland. These mounds 

 are evidently ancient fortifications, and near the edge of the sea in the 

 haven is a continuation of the rampart. About half-a-mile to the north of 

 the Black Head is Bope-hoon — once an old pilchard fishery station. At 

 spring tides, low water, are to be seen the remains of the old pier — and in 

 the cliffs the remains of the fish cellars. About half-a-mile west of the 

 Black Head is another old fishing station, called Hallean. Around the cove 

 are the remains of its old pier, and in the valley those of several large fish 

 cellars. Old fishermen have told me that the meaning of this name is 

 " haul in !" inferring that it was the grand spot where the seines with 

 pilchards were " hauled in " on the beach. " Hal " has various meanings in 

 Cornish names. Sometimes it means a salt marsh or moor, in other instances 

 a hill. It is also connected with the verb to hail, howl, call, or shout. It 

 is also Cornish for haul, to drag or pull in. As to Llean, Couch (and, before 

 him, Dr. Borlase) stated that it was the old Cornish name for pilchard. 

 " Hallean" may, therefore, have signified "haul pilchard," but the derivation 

 of the name should be further tested. At the head of the valley is the 

 decayed village of Trenarren. The old piers and cellars are plentiful along 

 the Cornish coast from Plymouth to the Dodman, Dudman, or Deadman, as 

 the headland is called. Couch calls the cellars "fish palaces," and Mr. 

 Howard Fox, of Falmouth, states that when visiting the old pilchard 

 cellars on the coast of Ireland, he found that the inhabitants there called 

 them "palaces." In the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Hawkins and Drake 

 held commissions from the Queen to settle disputes between the forestallers 

 and fish curers in the cliffs of Cornwall. Most probably the fishing stations 

 in and near Mevagissey formed part of the district under their control. 

 With the introduction of the present Dungarvan pilchard seine into 

 Cornwall from Ireland, which took place in the reign of James I., these 

 cliff cellars seem to have declined. At Portmellin the sand is lightly 

 strewn on the submerged forest. 



After the reading of the paper, what is commonly known as 

 the submarine forest was examined and commented on, and the 



