Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/134

 128 THE CORNWALL COAST the striking Bumble Rock, and close to this the hollow known as the Lion's Den, formed by a natural sudden subsidence in 1847. This formation was an immediate object-lesson as to the manner in which these remarkable hollows, caverns, and rock-freaks have been produced in the course of time ; and there can be no doubt that such natural weathering alone accounts for the Belidden Amphitheatre, east of the fine Penolver Point. Bass Point is the eastward bluff of this rugged and bare old headland, known to ancient geographers as Ocrinum, the southern extremity of the Britains. With many visitors, to speak of the Lizard is to speak of Kynance. It is Kynance that the guide-books and the artists have chiefly popularised; it is Kynance that is probably the most celebrated beauty-spot on the whole south- Cornish coast. Is it worthy of its reputation ? Some visitors give an emphatic affirmative ; others are a little dubious. To some the spot is a little spoiled by its popularity ; during the season it is like a corner of a fashionable watering-place, covered with tourists, refresh- ment booths, and sellers of serpentine. But autumn and winter bring a grand solitude when all traces of the tripper are washed away : the storms cleanse it with their mighty lustrations ; only the white sands, the black or richly stained rocks remain, a haunt of homeless winds and crying gulls. The cove is encircled by a group of off-lying rocks, insular at high tide ; it is only at low water that Kynance can be explored. The Gull Rock, Asparagus Island, the Lion, the Steeple, the Kitchen, the Drawing-room — these names of the crags and clefts have become