[Illustration:  MISS MARY ANNING.]

We thought we had finished with fossils after leaving Stromness in the Orkney Islands and trying to read the names of those deposited in the museum there, but we had now reached another “paradise for geologists,” this time described as a “perfect” one; we concluded, therefore, that what the Pomona district in the Orkneys could not supply, or what Hugh Miller could not find there, was sure to be found here, as we read that “where the river Char filtered into the sea the remains of Elephants and Rhinoceros had been found.”  But we could not fancy ourselves searching “the surrounding hills for ammonites and belemnites,” although we were assured that they were numerous, nor looking along the cliffs for such things as “the remains of ichthyosaurus, plesiosaurus, and other gigantic saurians, which had been discovered there, as well as pterodactyles,” for my brother declared he did not want to carry any more stones, his adventure in Derbyshire with them being still fresh on his mind.  We therefore decided to leave these to more learned people, who knew when they had found them; but, like Hugh Miller with his famous Asterolepis, a young lady named Mary Anning, who was described as “the famous girl geologist,” had, in 1811, made a great discovery here of a splendid ichthyosaurus, which was afterwards acquired for the nation and deposited in the British Museum.

[Illustration:  HEAD OF THE ICHTHYOSAURUS.]

Charmouth practically consisted of one long street rising up the hill from the river, and on reaching the top after getting clear of the town we had to pass along a curved road cut deeply through the rock to facilitate coach traffic.  In stormy weather the wind blew through this cutting with such terrific fury that the pass was known as the “Devil’s Bellows,” and at times even the coaches were unable to pass through.  The road now descended steeply on the other side, the town of Lyme Regis spread out before us, with its white houses and the blue sea beyond, offering a prospect that dwelt in our memories for many years.  No town in all England is quite like it, and it gave us the impression that it had been imported from some foreign country.  In the older part of the town the houses seemed huddled together as if to protect each other, and many of them adjoined the beach and were inhabited by fishermen, while a newer and larger class of houses was gradually being built on the hill which rose rather abruptly at the rear of what might be called the old town.

[Illustration:  REMAINS OF ICHTHYOSAURUS DISCOVERED AT CHARMOUTH.]

A curious breakwater called the Cobb stretches out a few hundred yards into the sea.  This was originally built in the time of Edward I as a shelter for the boats in stormy weather, but was destroyed by a heavy sea in the reign of Edward III, who allowed a tax to be levied on all goods imported and exported, the proceeds to be applied towards the rebuilding of the Cobb.