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A Birthday Surprise May 21 1807 During the night a powerful storm pounded the seawall and the cliffs of Lyme Regis A man made breakwater called the Cobb created a harbor for the village and held back the highest wash of the English Channel tides But a hard storm like this one always drenched the houses built close to the sea Mary Anning lived in one such soggy house She remembered a time when the rising water had flooded the first floor and crept step by wooden step up to the second floor where the family of four slept That time they were forced to climb out the bedroom window to escape drowning It had seemed a grand adventure to Mary to be perched like a gull on the rooftop waiting for the floodwater to ebb East of Lyme Regis large cliffs faced the sea The Black
Ven was the cliff that rose 150 feet high above the rocky foreshore and was formed by layers of limestone shale and soft clay The layers were called the Blue Lias blue for its shade of gray and lias for its layers of flat stone The layers crumbled easily and bashing waves regularly brought new stone treasures into view People called these odd rock shapes curiosities After a hard storm Mary's father always got up early to see if there was anything new and unusual to dig up Pa was a carpenter by trade He made cabinets boxes of every size and tables but his first love was scouring the cliffs for fossils Curiosities also fascinated young Mary From the time she was five Pa had taken her and her older brother Joseph along and taught them how to find curios in the cliffs and on the beach On this particular morning Mary dressed quickly and made her way carefully down the dark stairwell The oil lamps had not been lit but Mary saw shadows and slivers of morning light peeping through the windows in the kitchen Suddenly light flared out from the lamp on the dining table Now Mary could see who had been making the shadows Happy birthday Mary Pa and Joe had already gathered their collecting sacks and long poles for poking at the rocks It was hunting time After a storm Pa liked to beat old Captain Cury to the best new
T'm coming with you Mary said eagerly Pa wouldn't have minded taking her but Mary was eight today and that meant school Mary's very first day Time you learned to read and write said Pa Then he handed Mary the smaller sack he d been hiding behind his back Happy birthday lass Open it encouraged Joe Mary plunged her hand into the sack and pulled out a hammer Her eyes sparkled with delight when she saw what it was It s a rock hammer I made it special said Pa The blacksmith crafted the copper claws and the grip band What do you think It s got a good heft The hammer would make digging up new discoveries much easier I'm coming with you'm going to dig up the giant croe with this hammer You wait and see Many in Lyme Regis believed there was a giant creature some called it a crocodile buried in the Black Ven Hadn t Pa been finding bits of its spine what he called verteberries for years Not so fast Mary said Ma There'll be no hunting this morning Ann will be here shortly to walk with you to school Ma didn't like her daughter scrambling on the beach with
