heat of the sun. In my progress along shore, though it was getting late,
and I was somewhat fatigued, I could not resist the opportunity of
exploring a sort of natural opening or cove in a part of the coast where
the cliffs were unusually precipitous; affording the geologist the
highest gratification; you were reminded indeed of the flat surface of a
stone wall in many parts, which effect the regular stratification of the
rocks contributed to produce; and it required no great stretch of fancy
to imagine it one vast fortification, with loop-holes at regular
intervals--at a short distance from seaward certainly it would be
difficult to divest a stranger of the idea that it was something
artificial. Two high points of rock contracting at their extremities in
a circular direction so as almost to meet, ran into the sandy beach, and
you found on advancing beyond the narrow entrance, a considerable space,
which gradually extended to something like an oblong square, with a
sandy bottom everywhere, surrounded by the same lofty cliffs which
composed the adjacent coast. I was much surprised that I had never heard
of this place before; it had apparently been more the effect of some
natural convulsion than of the encroachment of the sea, and at the
further end was a high mass of shingles, seaweed, and fragments of rock
packed closely together by the tide. On examination I discovered, about
the centre of the shingles, a large stone cross, carved out of a
projecting part near the base of the cliff. It bore simply the initials
W.D. and though the surrounding rocks were thickly covered with seaweed
and barnacles, yet the cross itself was perfectly clean, and bore marks
of recent care. Some singular event had evidently occurred in this
retired and desolate place. I loitered a considerable time in musing and
examining the spot, regardless of the whining and uneasiness of my
Newfoundland dog, Retriever, when I was suddenly and fully aroused by
the sharp echo and plashing of the tide against the rock, within the
entrance of the cove. I now recollected with alarm that it was a spring