South of Wreck Brook

Photo #1 shows the subject of this page, the coast south of Wreck Brook, whose mouth can be seen at the left of the photo. In this view to the north from well south of Wreck Brook, “Malcolms Brook Mountain” fills most of the photo; only the land on this side of the diagnonal is part of “Wreck Brook Mountain”. The coastal area is full of fantastic forms, beginning with the semi-detached chimney mentioned in photo #3 on the previous page at the left. Near the centre of photo #1 is a huge semi-circular gouge that I have dubbed the “fan”, because it reminds me of the folds of an oriental fan spread wide. To the right are fractured cliffs, some eroded away to rock pillars, one out in the water and the others on land; I had initially taken the one looking like a muppet with a gaping smile and peaked hat for The Chimney, but it can’t be as it is well to the south of the mouth of Wreck Brook.

Photo #2 is a moderately wide-angled view of the “fan” from directly off shore. Riddled with run-off channels from left to right, this intriguing cliff face has been rubbed clean of any soil it may once have had. Reddish and sand-coloured hues predominate, but there are admixtures of light and dark grey, particularly at the left. There is even a little beach at the foot of the cliff; note the piles of sand and gravel there that the waters have not yet washed away.

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Photo #3 is another view of the “fan”, this time with its interior lit up by a stray ray of sun breaking through the clouds (it had to be a small slit, as notice how the areas on either side are in the shade). This view is from about halfway between the mouth of Wreck Brook and Polletts Cove; notice how the change in perspective has placed the “muppet” very near the entrance to the “fan” whereas in photo #1 it was much further south.

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Photo #4 looks yet further south down the coast, exposing the jumble of fractured rocks in the cliffs south of the “fan”. Up on the shore just left of the centre of the photo is a form that looks, at least from this vantage point, very like an old hearth, with an arched opening for cooking and fuel. The “fan” is behind this jumble (its upper edges can be seen rising beyond); no run-off channels are visible to account for all of the scarring, though perhaps the line of trees descending to the coast at the right are on either side of an intermittent brook coming down from above. Another bird is soaring above the scene. While there were some small grassy patches at and to the south of the mouth of Wreck Brook, they were isolated and do not connect; above the cliffs here, however, something more closely resembling the coastal plain can be seen once again.

Photo #5 looks still yet further south, this time bringing into full view the “big scrape”, an area which appears to me to have been scraped bare by strong gushing waters. The topographical map shows no brook coming down the mountainside here, but both my photos and Google Earth show a brook (dry when I was there) descending from the middle section of “Wreck Brook Mountain” and exiting at this shore. As a subsequent photo will show, the mouth of the brook is at the far right of the photo, so, at least in its current configuration, it is not responsible for having cleared the cliff. This view also shows the coastal plain ending, as the forest covers the terrain at the right.