WHITENOSE. 61 



At length we are under Whitenose, that hold ch^lk 

 cliff that is so prominent an ohject as the eye roves 

 along the coast line from Weymouth. Here we turn 

 the hoat's head to the southward and throw the dredge 

 overboard in fourteen fathoms. And while I am en- 

 joying, with the line in my hand, what a dredger 

 particularly likes to feel, the vibration produced by 

 the instrument as it rumbles and scrapes over a mo- 

 derately rough bottom, telling that it is doing its 

 work well, — we will gaze with admiration on this 

 magnificent precipice of dazzling white that rears its 

 noble head behind us. It is the termination of that 

 range of chalk hills which, with some few interruptions, 

 intersect the kingdom from the Yorkshire coast to 

 Dorset ; and stands in simple majesty, the snowy 

 whiteness of its vast face unvaried, except by the 

 slanting lines which mark the dipping strata running 

 ^cross it, and which look so fine and so regular as if 

 they had been drawn by the pen of a geometrician. 

 My companion told me the story of a lad of thirteen, 

 who four years ago fell from the loftiest part of the 

 summit, 500 feet above the sea. It is true a great 

 part of this descent was performed by rolling and 

 sliding, but for fifty feet the fall was absolutely per- 

 pendicular. The boy had been seeking rabbits, which 



cient for the men to light their pipes, and several gentlemen present 

 to light their cigars. As the excavation proceeded, the fire increased to 

 a blaze at the top, bottom, and sides ; and for the last four feet the 

 work was continued amidst red-hot materials, which ultimately eom- 

 .peUed the men to desist. The fire from the mass thus removed was 

 discernible from the Esplanade at Weymouth to a great concourse o 

 persons, and the scene of this curious phenomenon still continues to 

 present great attractions to visitors. 



