bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is not wide, and to those
that walk round, appears very narrow. He that ventures to look downward
sees, that if his foot should slip, he must fall from his dreadful
elevation upon stones on one side, or into water on the other. We
however went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed.

When we came down to the sea, we saw some boats, and rowers, and resolved
to explore the Buller at the bottom. We entered the arch, which the
water had made, and found ourselves in a place, which, though we could
not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without some
recoil of the mind. The bason in which we floated was nearly circular,
perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were inclosed by a natural wall,
rising steep on every side to a height which produced the idea of
insurmountable confinement. The interception of all lateral light caused
a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular rock, above us the distant
sky, and below an unknown profundity of water. If I had any malice
against a walking spirit, instead of laying him in the Red-sea, I would
condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan.

But terrour without danger is only one of the sports of fancy, a
voluntary agitation of the mind that is permitted no longer than it
pleases. We were soon at leisure to examine the place with minute
inspection, and found many cavities which, as the waterman told us, went
backward to a depth which they had never explored. Their extent we had
not time to try; they are said to serve different purposes. Ladies come
hither sometimes in the summer with collations, and smugglers make them
storehouses for clandestine merchandise. It is hardly to be doubted but
the pirates of ancient times often used them as magazines of arms, or
repositories of plunder.