TO BIRD ROCK IN AN OPEN BOAT 163 



herds of seals which in thousands had been forced in around 

 the Rock during March by the jamming ice-floes, the evening 

 passed. At midnight we retired, but before that we could 

 hear the screaming of the rising wind. The gale had started 



PUFFINS LEAVING THE ROCK 



in again, two hours after we reached the Rock. Had we been 

 only a little later, our plight would have been something 

 unpleasant to contemplate. 



The night was short indeed, for at a reasonably early hour 

 I was out among the birds. It was a magnificent sight ! The 

 wind was blustering from the southwest, the sky clear, and 

 the sea an angry array of white-caps, with surges thundering 

 against the cliffs, and our landing-place a raging caldron of 

 breakers. But the birds ! The keeper's belief that they had 

 increased during the last four years was certainly right. The 



