Page:The Cornwall coast.djvu/231

FROM LAND'S END TO ZENNOR 225 and we cannot tell what profundities of astro- logic science they carried with them. It is generally acknowledged that when the rough Teutons came they encountered and checked a mental culture higher than their own. But wc can only conjecture dimly, and leave the contro- versialists to wrangle. On the moorland beyond Morvah rises the tor of Carn Galva, standing stern and solitary like a little patch of Dartmoor. On the coast is the grand sheer cliff of Bosigran, the western pro- tection of Porthmeor Cove, with traces of prehistoric fortification ; it is a noble bluff of granite, with a drop of 400 feet. Puffins nest in the crevices below. A little westward are the pinnacled rocks of Rosemergy, covered with lichens and in parts clad in ivy ; the neigh- bouring turfy slopes are fragrant with heather and gorse. Little streams filter their way from the moorland to the coves, reaching the sea through hollows rich with ferns — there are still rare ferns to be found in the more inaccessible shelters. Just beyond is another Treryn Dinas, like that of the Logan near St. Levan ; but this Treen is better known as the Gurnard's Head. It is a favourite show-place, winning perhaps more attention than it deserves in comparison with other places near it ; but the rocky and turf-clad headland, with its traces of a far-distant past, is really very beautiful, reach- ing like a couchant beast into the waves that are sometimes of the purest blue, sometimes white with seething foam. There was an old chapel on the neck of the promontory, and near are remains of some rude granite huts. The popu- larity of the place has brought a modern hotel.