BIRD ISLAND AND SAINT CROIX 1 85 



the houses in the town. I remember seeing it turned 

 on to one of the old-fashioned white saihng- ships that 

 lay at anchor in the Bay ; this ship seemed to resent 

 the liberty, and shifted uneasily from side to side under 

 the brilliant light ; perhaps a hundred years ago she 

 might have carried cargo that would not have borne 

 such scrutiny, who knows ? At any rate she rolled 

 heavily on the sw^ell as the light still played on her, and 

 when it shifted rapidly, to centre itself on some other 

 object, the white vessel sank into oblivion. 



Somehow the sea at Port Elizabeth always gave 

 one the idea of an immense amount of latent power. 

 It was not always rough, but even on comparatively 

 calm days, at high tide the water would come swing- 

 ing past the end of the jetty in rather a choppy way, 

 and when it reached the solid wall of masonry that 

 guarded the railway station on the one side of the jetty 

 and the large block of public buildings on the other, 

 it would lurch in a very casual manner against this wall, 

 sending a shower of spray over some empty trucks 

 which were standing on the line. This was only done 

 in a lazy way, and was a very poor example of what 

 the sea could do when driven before the south-east 

 wind. 



The largest tug at Port Elizabeth was named the 

 Si7' Frederic. They were all good sea boats, but I 

 suppose the Sir Frederic could be trusted out in almost 

 any weather. This boat it was that carried oil and 

 stores to the lighthouse at Bird Island every month, 

 a distance of some thirty-five miles, more or less. Bird 

 Island is the largest of a group of small islands which 

 lie at the mouth of Algoa Bay, practically in the 



