76 



THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



the shell-beds appear to be getting buried. During a violent eastern gale 

 great numbers of Mya truncata, Modiola modiolus, and radiata, with a few 

 M. barbata and other species are still thrown up, and the common Tapes 

 pullastra occurs in wonderful variety of colour and marking ; while portions 

 of the sands are at times covered with myriads of dead Cerithium reticulatum, 

 among which may be found Pleurotoma nebula, and rarely P. attenuata, also 

 Philine aperta, and numerous valves of Axinus fiexuosus, but many of the 

 species for which this beach was formerly renowned have become rare or 

 have disappeared. 



I must hurry on past Lydstep, where Thalictum minus, Aquilegia vulgaris 

 (in great variety), Honkenya peploides, Orchis pyramidalis, and Cynoglossum 

 officinale are abundant, and Harpalyce rivata occurs, Manorbier and Fresh- 

 water East, where the old red sandstone crops out in the cliffs, and a very pretty 

 white banded variety of Littorina rudis is found on the rocks, past Stackpole 

 Head and Broad Haven, where the same shell takes all manner of banded 

 forms of red, purplish, black and white, to the wonderful range of cliffs, which 

 commencing at Bosherston Mere and St. Govin's Chapel, extends to Linney 

 Head, where the Atlantic waves throw their spray high over the top of the 

 hill. This range is, I think, entirely limestone, contorted and tilted in every 

 direction, hollowed out into deep inlets, as at the Huntsman's Leap, or under- 

 mined in extensive caves, or else forming curious arches, terraces and pillars, 

 among which the waves incessantly come and go. In one place the sea has 

 found its way up through the roof of a cave to the surface, and at certain 

 states of wind and tide, rushes up the narrow shaft with a roar that is heard 

 for more than a mile. In another the surface has sunk down perhaps a hun- 

 dred feet, in the form of an inverted cone, and ash trees have appeared, self- 

 sown, and so filled the surface with their tangled branches and twigs as to 

 give the appearance from a few yards distance of a dense mass of bushes. In 

 yet another wild spot, near the " Stack Rocks," a vast circular hole called 

 the " Cauldron," surrounded by perpendicular rocks and communicating with 

 the sea by a noble archway, forms a scene of unusual grandeur, not lessened 

 by the wild cries of the sea birds, as they circle round within it or fly out to 

 sea through the archway. This portion of the coast is populous in the sum- 

 mer with sea birds. The Guillemot and Razorbill rear their young in multi- 

 tudes on the surface and more sloping sides of the three isolated "Stack" rocks, 

 and on the shelves of the neighbouring cliffs and caves. The Kittiwake in 

 hundreds nests in the chinks of the perpendicular sides of the same rocks ; 

 and the Herring Gull may be found, more sparingly, occupying suitable 

 corners in the cliffs for miles. The Jackdaw is plentiful, of course, nesting 



