THE HOME OF THE SEA FERN 
175 
coast we have just described and Prawle Point. We mar- 
velled indeed that the railway which so quickly opens up the 
most beautiful parts of our beautiful island had not long 
since been brought to this charming part of the coast of 
Devon. We passed a succession of the most lovely bays, 
which would make the most delightful of seaside retreats ; 
now fronted by strips of golden sand, as smooth as velvet to 
the touch ; now by a stretch of snow-white pebbles ; now by 
shingle of varying hue. Studded along the foreshore and 
partly covered by the sea were scattered about great masses 
of rock, on which the sea-fowl perched, and around which the 
waves foamed and boiled. In places the tiny strips of beach 
were unapproachable from the cliff-top, which rose sheer 
above them to a vast height. At one particular spot to 
which we were led by following the coastguard path, we 
stood for a few moments, and gazed down a terrible precipice 
which suddenly yawned away below us. It was formed by 
two projecting points of cliff, which spread out in horseshoe 
shape, approaching each other at their seaward extremity, 
and forming what might be almost likened to a huge well in 
their rear. Terrible indeed was this chasm, the jagged walls 
of which down far, far below appeared covered in places 
with a film of green which we knew must be the wild rough 
grass which is so often seen growing on sandy soil. Looking 
down the giddy height, we espied across and below on a 
jutting point of rock what looked like a small white stone. 
As we looked, however, the object appeared to move, and 
then, by the aid of a glass we found that it was a sheep 
grazing on the cliff-side. The white gulls skimming in mid- 
air below us looked like butterflies, and down farther still 
the sea, whose roar we could not hear, except in a faint sigh, 
showed its fringe of snowy foam, as it broke upon the desolate 
rocks and spread itself over the golden sand. 
It is probably due to the ruggedness of many parts of 
