How many a thing has troubled me with that same idea ! Pass on and leave it unexplained . Here is a narrow avenue which might seem to have been hewn through the very heart of an enormous crag , affording passage for the rising sea to thunder back and forth , filling it with tumultuous foam and then leaving its floor of black pebbles bare and glistening . In this chasm there was once an intersecting vein of softer stone , which the waves have gnawed away piecemeal , while the granite walls remain entire on either side . How sharply and with what harsh clamor does the sea rake back the pebbles as it momentarily withdraws into its own depths ! At intervals the floor of the chasm is left nearly dry , but anon , at the outlet , two or three great waves are seen struggling to get in at once ; two hit the walls athwart , while one rushes straight through , and all three thunder as if with rage and triumph . They heap the chasm with a snow-drift of foam and spray . While watching this scene I can never rid myself of the idea that a monster endowed with life and fierce energy is striving to burst his way through the narrow pass . And what a contrast to look through the stormy chasm and catch a glimpse of the calm bright sea beyond ! Many interesting discoveries may be made among these broken cliffs . Once , for example , I found a dead seal which a recent tempest had tossed into the nook of the rocks , where his shaggy carcase lay rolled in a heap of eel-grass as if the sea-monster sought to hide himself from my eye . Another time a shark seemed on the point of leaping from the surf to swallow me , nor did I wholly without dread approach near enough to ascertain that the man-eater had already met his own death from some fisherman in the bay . In the same ramble I encountered a bird -- a large gray bird -- but whether a loon or a wild goose or the identical albatross of the Ancient Mariner was beyond my ornithology to decide . It reposed so naturally on a bed of dry seaweed , with its head beside its wing , that I almost fancied it alive , and trod softly lest it should suddenly spread its wings skyward . But the sea-bird would soar among the clouds no more , nor ride upon its native waves ; so I drew near and pulled out one of its mottled tail-feathers for a remembrance . Another day I discovered an immense bone wedged into a chasm of the rocks ; it was at least ten feet long , curved like a scymitar , bejewelled with barnacles and small shellfish and partly covered with a growth of seaweed . Some leviathan of former ages had used this ponderous mass as a jaw-bone . Curiosities of a minuter order may be observed in a deep reservoir which is replenished with water at every tide , but becomes a lake among the crags save when the sea is at its height . At the bottom of this rocky basin grow marine plants , some of which tower high beneath the water and cast a shadow in the sunshine . Small fishes dart to and fro and hide themselves among the seaweed ; there is also a solitary crab who appears to lead the life of a hermit , communing with none of the other denizens of the place , and likewise several five-fingers ; for I know no other name than that which children give them .
If your imagination be at all accustomed to such freaks , you may XXXXX down into the depths of this pool and fancy it the mysterious depth of ocean .
Pass affording fancied gnawed look met observed rising spread trod