ound upon the very outmost
edge of the land, and with which the stones may be said to be soldered
together, lest the force of the sea should separate and disjoint them,
and so break in upon these fortifications of the island to destroy its
chief security.

This is certain--that there is a more than ordinary quantity of tin,
copper, and lead also placed by the Great Director of Nature in these
very remote angles (and, as I have said above, the ore is found upon the
very surface of the rocks a good way into the sea); and that it does not
only lie, as it were, upon or between the stones among the earth (which
in that case might be washed from it by the sea), but that it is even
blended or mixed in with the stones themselves, that the stones must be
split into pieces to come at it. By this mixture the rocks are made
infinitely weighty and solid, and thereby still the more qualified to
repel the force of the sea.

Upon this remote part of the island we saw great numbers of that famous
kind of crows which is known by the name of the Cornish cough or chough
(so the country people call them). They are the same kind which are
found in Switzerland among the Alps, and which Pliny pretended were
peculiar to those mountains, and calls the _pyrrhocorax_. The body is
black; the legs, feet, and bill of a deep yellow, almost to a red. I
could not find that it was affected for any good quality it had, nor is
the flesh good to eat, for it feeds much on fish and carrion; it is
counted little better than a kite, for it is of ravenous quality, and is
very mischievous. It will steal and carry away anything it finds about
the house that is not too heavy, though not fit for its food--as knives,
forks, spoons, and linen cloths, or whatever it can fly away with;
sometimes they say it has stolen bits of firebrands, or lighted candles,
and lodged them in the stacks of corn and the thatch of barns and houses,
and set them on fire; but this I only had by oral tradition.

I might take up many sheets in describing the valuable curiosities of
this little Chersonese or Neck Land, called the Land's End, in which
there lies an immense treasure and many things worth notice (I mean,
besides those to be found upon the surface), but I am too near the end of
this letter. If I have opportunity I shall take notice of some part of
what I omit here in my return by the northern shore of the county.

TWO LETTERS
FROM THE "JOURNEY THROUGH ENGLAND BY A