, we again put off, and sailed to
Ilfracombe. We passed on our way Morte Point, a dangerous headland, so
called on account of the number of vessels that have been shipwrecked
there. There is a lighthouse on the cliff, to show the position of this
dangerous place, and a red buoy also floats over the sunken rocks.

We had with us a chart, showing the position of the wrecks round the
English coasts. There were a considerable number around this headland;
but many more up the Bristol Channel, especially at the mouth of the
Severn, where the river appears crowded with black dots. Off Plymouth,
long rows of dots show where vessels have gone down. Between Lundy
Island and the Welsh coast they are numerous; while they are equally
dense between the Eddystone and Falmouth. They cluster thickly in the
neighbourhood of all the headlands round Cornwall. Though more
sprinkled, they are almost within hail of each other across Saint
George's Channel,--from the entrance, to the north of the Isle of
Anglesea,--and still thicker at the mouth of the Mersey. There are not
a few off Portland. Between that and Beachy Head they lie very close;
but from Dungeness to the North Foreland they almost touch each other,
every part of the Goodwin Sands being covered by them. All along the
shore at the mouth of the Severn they can be counted by dozens; but the
sandbanks off Great Yarmouth have proved the destruction of more vessels
than the rocks of any other part of the coast. There is scarcely twenty
miles of shore anywhere which could be passed over without those dark
spots which show that some vessel has been wrecked.

It was gratifying, however, to see painted on the map a number of little
red dots, which mark the lifeboat stations. Where wrecks have more
frequently occurred in past years, there they appear thickest. On the
Norfolk coast there are close upon thirty lifeboats, so that they are in
most places not more than five miles apart.

We got into the snug little harbour of Ilfracombe, and the next morning
enjoyed a ramble among the picturesque rocks of that romantic
watering-place. In winter people come from a distance to it, for it is
one of the most attractive seaside places on the English coast, with
rocks and sands, and comfortable lodging-houses.

As the wind was from the southward and the tide favourable, we did not
stay long, but stood across to Lundy Island, a rock at the southern end
of which is called Bat Island. We