an offing to run up the
Channel.

So that the Lizard is the general guide, and of more use in these cases
than the other point, and is therefore the land which the ships choose to
make first; for then also they are sure that they are past Scilly and all
the dangers of that part of the island.

Nature has fortified this part of the island of Britain in a strange
manner, and so, as is worth a traveller's observation, as if she knew the
force and violence of the mighty ocean which beats upon it; and which,
indeed, if the land was not made firm in proportion, could not withstand,
but would have been washed away long ago.

First, there are the islands of Scilly and the rocks about them; these
are placed like out-works to resist the first assaults of this enemy, and
so break the force of it, as the piles (or starlings, as they are called)
are placed before the solid stonework of London Bridge to fence off the
force either of the water or ice, or anything else that might be
dangerous to the work.

Then there are a vast number of sunk rocks (so the seamen call them),
besides such as are visible and above water, which gradually lessen the
quantity of water that would otherwise lie with an infinite weight and
force upon the land. It is observed that these rocks lie under water for
a great way off into the sea on every side the said two horns or points
of land, so breaking the force of the water, and, as above, lessening the
weight of it.

But besides this the whole _terra firma_, or body of the land which makes
this part of the isle of Britain, seems to be one solid rock, as if it
was formed by Nature to resist the otherwise irresistible power of the
ocean. And, indeed, if one was to observe with what fury the sea comes
on sometimes against the shore here, especially at the Lizard Point,
where there are but few, if any, out-works, as I call them, to resist it;
how high the waves come rolling forward, storming on the neck of one
another (particularly when the wind blows off sea), one would wonder that
even the strongest rocks themselves should be able to resist and repel
them. But, as I said, the country seems to be, as it were, one great
body of stone, and prepared so on purpose.

And yet, as if all this was not enough, Nature has provided another
strong fence, and that is, that these vast rocks are, as it were,
cemented together by the solid and weighty ore of tin and copper,
especially the last, which is plentifully f