I am well aware that I have against me not only Teutomaniacs and Celtomaniacs in turn, but much cultured opinion, and that I shall be opposed by many who are not only incapable of race animosity in the ordinary sense, but highly cosmopolitan in feeling.

We'd had our first encounter with a basking shark, and, metaphorically at least, this gigantic, strange beast had me firmly in its jaws. Out of our wetsuits and back on dry land, we headed for the marine laboratories at Port Erin on the south of the island to meet biologist Jill Strawbridge. Coming face to face with a basker had whetted my appetite, and I was keen to get to the bottom of some of the mysteries surrounding Cetorhinus maximus.

He was interested at once, and also at once made proclamation that all such performances were hanky-pank, and that he could duplicate any of them.

White dust was cycloning at the bottom of ravines that cut for miles into the red flatness