The shrieking gusts, as the gale rises yet higher and more furious,
whip off the crests of the breaking billows, and bear the spray like a
shower of salt sleet to the height where we stand; while the foam, as
it forms and accumulates around the base of the headland, is seized
by the same power in broad masses, and carried against the sides
of the projecting rocks; flying hither and thither like fleeces of
wool, and adhering like so much mortar to the face of the precipice,
till it covers great spaces, to the height of many fathoms above the
highest range of the tide. The gulls flit wailing through the storm,
now breasting the wind, and beating the air with their long wings as
they make slow headway; then, yielding the vain essay, they turn and
are whirled away, till, recovering themselves, they come up again
with a sweep, only again to be discomfited. Their white forms, now
seen against the leaden-grey sky, now lost amidst the snowy foam,
then coming into strong relief against the black rocks; their piping
screams, now sounding close against the ear, then blending with the
sounds of the elements, combine to add a wildness to the scene which
was already sufficiently savage.
But the spring-tide is nearly at its lowest; a rocky path leads down
from our eminence to a recess in the precipice, whence in these
conditions access may be obtained to a sea-cavern, that we may possibly
find entertainment in exploring.
We reluctantly turn our backs upon the magnificent battle of sea and
land, and following this sheep-track, scramble down, holding fast by
the tufts of thrift, round and soft and yielding, but sufficiently
firm to present some resistance, or by the tussocks of wiry grass,
till we leap down on the great piled masses of marble that past ages
have thrown from the cliffs upon the beach. Among these we find many
basins and pools of still water, for we are in a deep recess of the
promontory, whose shelter renders us almost unconscious of the fury of
the winter wind without; and the masses of rock that lie piled about
so curb and break the force of the incoming sea, that it percolates
rather than rushes into these secluded nooks. Tall walls of stone,
too, shut out much of the light of day; and as to the sun, only his
most slant evening rays ever reach this spot: it is enshrouded in an
obscurity which is most congenial to both the plants and the animals
which resort to our shores; and here, doubtless, though the season is
still midwinter, we shall find our searchings rewarded by not a few of
those creatures, beautiful and wondrous, in which the devout naturalist
delights to trace the handiwork of the God of glory.