promontory, they left the carriage; and Mr. Merton waited at the light-house, while Mrs. Merton and Agnes walked over the downs towards the cliffs. They had not gone far, when they met a man with a small telescope in his hand, coming towards them; and Mrs. Merton asked him if he would go back with them, and help Agnes to climb down part of the cliffs. He willingly consented: and they advanced as well as the wind would permit them; but this was so violent that Mrs. Merton, who was light, and not very strong, was in great danger of being blown into the sea. The man told them first to turn to the right, that they might descend to the beach, to see the curious stratification of the Bay; but, just as they had reached a sheltered nook, they observed a young man coming up towards them; and, to their great surprise, they recognised a friend of theirs residing at Godalming. After the first hurried greeting, they asked him how he came to be there; and he told them that he was staying with a friend at Freshwater. He no sooner said this, than Agnes asked him how he had contrived to reach the spot from which they saw him ascending. “I came there in a boat,” said he. “I thought it was quite dangerous,” said Agnes, eagerly. “So it would have been,” returned Mr. Russell,—for that was the name of the young gentleman,—“if we had not contrived to pass the Needles when the tide was full.” “And how did you manage that?” asked Mrs. Merton. “By leaving Freshwater Gate at three o’clock in the morning,” returned he: “and, I assure you, it was anything but agreeable. The night air blew excessively chill; and the sea was wrapped in such a thick gloom that it required some courage to plunge into it. However, the fishermen pushed off the boat; and, though there was such a heavy swell, that we were alternately mounted on the crest of the billows, and lost in the hollows between them, after about an hour’s hard pulling, we found ourselves under the highest point of the cliff. The face of the rock is there nearly perpendicular, and it is six hundred and fifteen feet high.” “But did you see the caverns?” asked Agnes. “Oh! yes; but I had seen them before. The best is Freshwater Cavern: surely you saw that?” “No, we did not. Pray tell us all about it.”