ARCTIC PUFFIN. 369 



Geologist, and among them some who never saw it. A friend 

 of mine, INIr. John MacGillivray, made a hurried visit to it in 

 1839, and having scrambled to the top of a high hill, came 

 suddenly upon the edge of a magnificent precipice. 



" Far below me could be seen the long heavy swell 

 rolling in from the Atlantic, and climbing up the dark rock 

 whose base it clothed with sheets of snow-white foam, as it 

 broke with a sound at times scarcely perceptible, but at 

 intervals falling upon the ear like distant thunder. In 

 many places the rock was scarcely visible on account of the 

 absolute myriads of sea-birds sitting upon their nests ; the 

 air was literally filled with them, and the water seemed 

 profusely dotted with the larger fowl, the smaller ones being 

 nearly invisible on account of the distance. The sound of 

 their wings as they flew past, joined to their harsh screams 

 as they wheeled along the face of the cliff, startled me from 

 the reverie into which I was thrown by the strange scene 

 before me. Every little ledge was thickly covered with 

 Kittiwakes, Auks, and Guillemots ; all the grassy spots were 

 tenanted by the Fulmar, and honeycombed by myriads of 

 Puffins ; Avhile close to the water, on the wet rocks which 

 were hollowed out into deep caves, sat clusters of Cormo- 

 rants, erect and motionless, like so many unclean spirits 

 guarding the entrance of some gloomy cavern. On rolling 

 down a large stone from the summit, a strange scene of 

 confusion ensued. It would, perhaps, fall on some unhappy 

 Fulmar sitting upon the nest, crushing her in an instant ; 

 then rolling down the crags, Avhich reverberated its echoes 

 far and near, tearing long furrows in the grassy slopes, and 

 being shivered into fragments upon some projecting crag, 

 scattering in dismay the dense groups of Auks and Guille- 

 mots. Its progress is all along marked by the clouds of 

 birds which affrighted shoot out from the precipice to avoid 

 the fate which, nevertheless, would befal many, until at 

 length it reaches the bottom, and is received into the water 

 along with its many victims. The startled tenants of the 

 rock now return to their resting-places, and all is again 

 comparatively quiet. 



*' By far the most abundaiit species in St. Kilda is the 

 VOL. V. 2 b 



