On the eastern
horizon the dark range of Exmoor sank gradually into lower and more
broken ridges, which rolled away, woodland beyond woodland, till all
outlines were lost in purple haze; while, far beyond, the granite
peaks of Dartmoor hung like a delicate blue cloud, and enticed the
eye away into infinity. From hence, as our eyes swept round the
horizon, the broken hills above the river's mouth gradually rose into
the table-land of the 'barren coal-measures' some ten miles off,--a
long straight wall of cliffs which hounded the broad bay, buried in
deepest shadow, except where the opening of some glen revealed far
depths of sunlit wood. A faint perpendicular line of white houses,
midway along the range, marked our destination; and far to the
westward, the land ended sheer and suddenly at the cliffs of
Hartland, the 'Promontory of Hercules,' as the old Romans called it,
to reappear some ten miles out in the Atlantic, in the blue flat-
topped island of Lundy, so exactly similar in height and form to the
opposite cape, that it required no scientific imagination to supply
the vast gap which the primeval currents had sawn out.
Pages:
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286