100 MUTTON BIRDS 



Ernest Islands, has afforded some little shelter, 

 and towards the north, where Cape Ruggedy 

 has also to some extent broken the full blast 

 of the gale, rise steep, almost precipitous sand 

 cliifs. They form a sea-wall corresponding to 

 the length and fitting the crescent shape of the 

 Bay and at either extremity north, or south, 

 of tliis natural rampart the travelling sand is 

 blown from the brown sea floor, whirled up the 

 cliffs and shaken abroad over the inland woods. 



About mid-way between the northern and 

 southern horns of the bay and where the gales 

 strike with concentrated force, this wall has 

 given way, ])ut not as a whole even here, rather 

 it has ])een pierced by numberless narrow 

 gorges. Relics of its former entirety survive 

 in the form of cones and peaks, bound with 

 creeping plants, tussock grass and flax, and on 

 whose peaks the Skua breeds. 



Immediately behind these peaks and over- 

 blown walls, lie stony terraces and stony slopes 

 and steppes — a net-work of dunes, which has 

 assumed all the delightful shapes of travelling 

 sand — its pinnacles, head-lands, hog backs, 

 cliffs, coi'nices, deltas, running skees, and slopes 

 with sides as smooth as snow. 



Even in this part of the beach however, 

 where the ultimate triumph of sand and dry 

 gales would seem to be most perfectly assured, 

 a barrier to their joint dominion exists in the 

 form of a small fresh-water stream. Every- 

 where this brook obstructs the sand, absorbing 

 the dry showers as they fall from the landward 

 terraces, and often forming on the beach a 

 miniature bar behind which a long shallow 

 lagoon forms itself, and where the wagging 



