408 PBESIDENTIAX ADDEESS. . 



river. "No volumes or clouds of black smoke obscured the view 

 of the Roman sentinels, as they watched on the one side the 

 entrance to the river and the distance intervening between the 

 adjoining opposite camp at Tynemouth, or the more distant one 

 at Jarrow Point — then easily discernible, smoke and ballast 

 being absent. But how changed now. Uncouth ballast hills 

 and the darkness of the blackest clouds of smoke close in all the 

 view, and obliterate and blot out all that is or was beautiful in 

 the landscape. Trees and forests have disappeared, and only 

 what is ugly and artificial remains. A hasty visit to the portion 

 left of the Boman station was made, and then the journey along 

 the coast to Marsden was resumed. 



The changes that have taken place in the town seemed to 

 follow us along the coast. The sand-dunes, once so extensive 

 and luxuriant with rare plants and insects, have suffered from 

 the innovations of men, and are nearly exterminated. Ballast 

 hills have been extended even to the sea-coast, and the lofty 

 dunes of sand have been swept away by currents of air or buried 

 beneath heaps of outlandish rubbish. The site of that rare 

 English plant, Convolvulus soldanella, has been destroyed, and 

 the homes of rare Moths and other insects have been unthink- 

 ingly obliterated. The Whin bushes, the Perns, the Boses, and 

 Harebells have also nearly all disappeared. "When we proceed 

 onwards we find the Trou Bocks, with its wild piece of moor- 

 land, the home of many wild flowers, have entirely been removed, 

 and an empty void left in the coast-line, which only time can 

 replace ; and it is not until we reach Frenchman's Bay, and re- 

 gain the old bridle-path (for you may ride along the coast if you 

 like to Marsden, or Whitburn, or Cleadon), that we begin to 

 breathe a little fresh air, and renew our acquaintance with old 

 familiar scenes. And how beautiful is the fretted rockwork 

 along this old wave-worn coast. You stand at each headland 

 and look back upon what you have passed, and see fresh forms 

 of rock and unique cave-worn grottoes in every direction. How 

 many who walk along this well-trodden coast know of or have 

 explored the two extensive wave- worn caverns that are situated 

 between Frenchman's Bay and Man Haven. How few have 



