86 THE GEOLOGY OF THE BERWICK COAST LINE 



The cave which we visit to-day is called the Burgesses' 

 Cove, because it is situated on the property of the Freemen 

 of Berwick. Formerly, I am informed, it was used by them 

 as a convenient retreat for discussion of electioneering- matters, 

 and for the adjustment of certain claims connected with 

 elections, which demanded secrecy and privacy ; but under 

 existing conditions the cave is no longer necessary for such 

 purposes. Othello's occupation's gone. A few years ago a 

 schoolboy from the south, who was visiting me, asked, " Got 

 any caves here?" "Oh, yes, we have." "Then you have 

 smugglers, of course?" "No," I answered, "we have no 

 smugglers." "No smugglers!" echoed my youthful interro- 

 gator, in a tone of scornful surprise, as if he were convicting 

 me of being in the possession of caves under false pretences ; 

 "no smugglers! What do you do with your caves, then?" 

 I was obliged sorrowfully to confess that, except as places 

 of resort for the curious, our caves are at present without 

 occupation. Hollowed out in the course of centuries by the 

 continuous action of the relentless sea, they have no doubt 

 been the refuge, in bygone times, of many a smuggler ; but 

 now, except we join with our juvenile friends fresh from 

 the perusal of stirring tales of adventure, in lamenting the 

 degeneracy of the age which leaves their recesses tenantless, 

 we shall find, beyond their shape, little inside to arrest 

 attention, except numerous old initials and dates, of which 

 the oldest I have traced are 1703 and 1709, and perhaps 

 16 — something; though outside, we can notice the fantastic 

 weathering and so forth. And when we consider that all 

 these and like rocks are made up of grains of quartz, which 

 were, age after age, slowly worn away from still older 

 rocks by the action of the sea, consolidated beneath its 

 surface, and raised up to form dry land, we may obtain 

 some glimmering idea, faint though it be, of the vast extent" 

 of what is known as geological time. 



