472 NATURAL HISTORY OF 



swimming about, and gulls and terns were flying over the 

 water in flocks. In about half-an-liour the unfortunate 

 steamer broke down, and halted to repair damages, and we 

 proceeded on alone, after a tedious pull reaching a long sand- 

 spit dry at low water. Here we intended to land and walk 

 on to the cliffs, but our purpose was defeated by the discovery 

 that the spit in question was not a peninsula, but an island. 

 Accordingly, joined by the steamer, which again took us in 

 tow, we proceeded onwards till we arrived opposite the first 

 deposit of fallen blocks at the foot of the cliffs. The cutter 

 was then anchored in the stream, while we pulled in towards 

 the shore in the galley till she grounded, when we landed, 

 armed with picks and geological hammers for our work. 

 After examining the first accumulation of blocks, and find- 

 ing in the soft yellow sandstone of which certain of them were 

 composed some small fragments of bone, we proceeded to 

 walk along the beach, carefully examining the surface of the 

 cliffs and the piles of fragments which occurred here and 

 there at their base. The height of the cliffs varied consider- 

 ably, and the highest portions, averaging about 200 feet, 

 extended for a distance of about ten miles, and were evidently 

 undergoing a rapid process of disintegration, a perpetual 

 shower of small pieces descending in many places, and numer- 

 ous large masses being in process of detaching themselves from 

 the parent bed. They were principally composed of strata of 

 hard clay (sometimes almost homogeneous in its texture, and 

 at others containing numerous rounded boulders) ; soft yellow 

 sandstone ; sandstone abounding in hard concretions ; and 

 lastly, a kind of conglomerate, resembling solidified, rather 

 fine gravel. The lowermost strata, as a rule, were formed of 

 the sandstone with concretions ; the middle of the soft yellow 

 sandstone, which alone appeared to contain organic remains ; 



