Page:The aquarium - an unveiling of the wonders of the deep sea.djvu/169

128 dividing two waters, both beautiful; the one undulating with the long swells of the Atlantic, the other smooth, or at most but rippled. Wyke crowns the hill just opposite with its tall tower and the hedge-rowed fields chequering the slopes around, and beyond it sweeps a long blue line of coast with dim headlands here and there, as far as Torquay.

I passed the Quarries rapidly, for I wished to get to the southern end of the island by low-water, desiring, as the time was favourable, to explore the rocky caves and coves that indent the precipitous coast;—and posted on through two other villages, Highstone, and Wakeham, which, like the former two, merge into one. I met here with a garrulous old man, a characteristic specimen of the island population. Like nine-tenths of his fellows he had united the trades of smuggler and stone-cutter; gave me some graphic anecdotes of the adventures of his younger days, when "running tubs," and described the sad fate of his hopeful son, a stone-hewer like himself, who was suddenly snatched from his side by a block of stone falling upon him, from the seaward cliff where they were quarrying. "The stone split my poor boy right open," said the old man, and pathetically added, "I've never worked a stroke since!"

Few specimens of vegetation can Portland produce that attain the dimensions of a tree; but near the middle there is a pretty grove of horse-chestnut, maple, elm and other trees, of no great altitude certainly, but imparting a rural aspect to the vicinity of Pensylvania Castle, the quondam seat of the governor of the island. Beside this a narrow road scarped