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UNDER THE SEA. 291
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
V December Lias Not Everywhere In Englan...
nothing to our unskilled eyes . We were to find some one somewhere whom we could seize for guide and instructor ,, but as yet
no one appeared . * We were in . view of a wild headland , piled with precipitous stone
masses rising one over the other higher and higher , with a slight backward slopefrom where the final precipice broke straight
, into the sea , beating its fiercest against it . And on the highest hill summit was one isolated building , gawky and unbeautiful
enough in itself as mine edifices are , and far below it , probably considerably more than two hundred feet , on the rim of the
precipice was another , the renowned Crown engine-house , with lower masonwork and woodwork , confused in seeming to us , about
it . Thitherward we were going-. Our road became a rugged path with a descent too sharp to be
called a slope , and we were presently in the shadow of the enginehousehesitating between a kind of wooden mauvais pasinto
which , our path transformed itself , and another shelving path , to the left terminating in a long flight of wooden-stairs . These led
to a rock floor directly below us , and there were the only people we could see about the mine , at work breaking _stores . We called
to them , but whether they were too far below to catch the words , or -whether they would not take the trouble of answering us , we
could not say ; a woman and a child continued to gaze at us stonily with open mouthsbut no sound issuing from them , as long
as-, we continued our vain efforts ; but of getting the information we required as to our prospect of finding * men . at work above ground
of whom we could get one to show us what was to be seen without making a descent into the sunless regionswe presently became
, hopeless . We decided on the mauvais pas ; my companion had an idea that there were men at work where some kind of masonry
( to what purpose I know not ) edged the sharp corner , direct above the sea-levelto which it ledcomfortably . It was an untidy
planking , too , narrow for two , abreast , and not particularly neat footing—the miners are not solicitous on this matter , —and it
seemed a kind of bridge to connect the ledge of the cliff path with walk another in itself rather _^ but narrower notI led should ge a say few to paces a person onward inclined —a safe to enoug _dizzi h -
, , ness ; at any rate likely to produce some uneasy sensations in such a case . For the rocks went sheer down to our left and the waters
were seething and tossing beneath—how many feet ? say thirty , say twenty ; I cannot judge height , but at all events , a threatening *
distance if we were to fall . However , in itself , the position had no danger ; none to prevent
us presently seeing that there was no sign of life ahead of us , from turning back , standing there watching the great breakers bursting
into , spray far down at our feet , and along the small bay , and _against the _Tbluff point to the left that helped to enclose the small
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Under The Sea. 291
UNDER THE SEA . 291
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Citation
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English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), July 1, 1863, page 291, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01071863/page/3/
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