an autumn tour in spain in the year 1859

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Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II. fTHHIS weighty matter decided, we walked -- down to see the bathers, many of whom take their dip on the open shore in front of the town, the operation being in that quarter very much of the same nature as at most other watering-places. But if any one wishes to see a bath of an entirely novel description, let him go with us to the other side of the town, where he will witness a most amusing spectacle. Let the reader figure to himself a deep, narrow cove, walled on each side by cliffs, and protected at its seaward extremity by a rocky islet, that does duty for a breakwater, while the upper end is encircled with long rows of wooden bathing houses. Between these and the sea, a bevy of ladies, en grande toilette, is sitting under the pleasant shade of impending rocks. Your first glance prompts you to say, " Oh! what a charmingBiarritz. 17 spot for a quiet bathe!" but you have hardly uttered the words before you discover, that, in spite of all its apparent advantages of situation, it has little power to keep out the terrific rush of an Atlantic wave, which even when broken on the beach retains force enough to knock down a powerful man. A tremendous sea is rolling in, the waves of any length and depth, and as they are suddenly compressed into that narrow space, they break against the rocky sides of the cove with the noise of thunder, scattering showers of spray and foam high into the air. In the midst of this seething whirlpool, you catch a glimpse of heads dotted about here and there, now rising on a summit of a huge mountain- wave, now suddenly disappearing behind a wall of waters, in the most imminent peril (apparently) of being dashed to pieces every moment. It quite takes away your breath to look at them, as they are tossed to and fro in impotent helplessness...
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