The rocks hereabouts are very vividly coloured at certain times of the year, and in the spring are covered with lichens and turf, with blossoms of the blue scilla.

[Illustration:  THE LOGAN ROCK.]

Porthcurnow, which runs a short distance into the rocky coast, is one of Cornwall’s most picturesque little bays.  Round the foot of the rocks we saw what appeared to be a fringe of white sand, which at first sight we thought must have been left there by the Giant Tregeagle, as it was part of his task to sweep the sands from Porthcurnow Cove; but we ascertained that what we thought was white sand was in reality a mass of extremely small shells.  The surface of the rocks above abounded with golden furze, which in summer, mingled with purple heather, formed a fine contrast.  In the background was a small and dismal-looking valley known locally as the “Bottoms,” which was often obscured by mists rising from the marshes below, and which few people cared to cross after nightfall.  It was near the “Bottoms” that a mysterious stranger took up his abode many years ago.  He was accompanied by an evil-looking foreign man-servant, who never spoke to any one except his master—­probably because he was unable to speak English.  No one knew where these strange people had come from, but they kept a boat in the cove, in which they used to start off to sea early in the morning and disappear in the distance, never returning until dead of night.  Sometimes when the weather was stormy they remained out all night.  Occasionally, but only on stormy and dark nights, they stayed on shore, and then they went hunting on the moors, whence the cry of their hounds was often heard in the midnight hours.

[Illustration:  ROCKY COAST NEAR LAND’S END.]

At length the mysterious stranger died and was buried, the coffin being carried to the grave followed by the servant and the dogs.  As soon as the grave was filled in with earth the servant and the dogs suddenly disappeared, and were never heard of again, while at the same time the boat vanished from the cove.

Since this episode a ghostly vessel had occasionally appeared in the night, floating through the midnight air from the direction of the sea—­a black, square-rigged, single-masted barque, sometimes with a small boat, at other times without, but with no crew visible.  The apparition appeared on the sea about nightfall, and sailed through the breakers that foamed over the dangerous rocks that fringed the shore, gliding over the sands and through the mist that covered the “Bottoms,” and proceeding in awful silence and mystery to the pirate’s grave, where it immediately disappeared; and it is an ill omen to those who see that ghostly vessel, the sight of which forebodes misfortune!