;168 FALCO PEREGRINUS. 



materials for this work, I accompanied Mr Audubon 

 to the Bass Rock, he having- the gannets more par- 

 ticularly in view, and I the peregrines. How we 

 weye conveyed to North Berwick, how many rabbits 

 we saw on Guillon Hill, and what esculents were de- 

 molished by us at the inn, it is not altogether neces- 

 sary to state. The lobster-traps, mackerel baskets,, and 

 lazy fishermen, we saw at Canty Bay ; the alternations 

 of trap and sandstone on the coast, with Mr Maclaren 

 exploring their phenomena ; the burntup herbage, and 

 the beautiful tufts of Eryngium maritimum, with all 

 the other wonders of the place, including the cone- 

 shaped Law, and the reapers from the Green Isle, may 

 be safely passed over in silence. But now, at six in 

 the morning, see us in a well-manned boat, skimming 

 lightly over the smooth sea, in the direction of the 

 gaunt rock of the gannets. We had proceeded about 

 a mile, little, excepting a few cormorants and curlews^^ 

 having attracted our attention, when 



" sudden, close before us, show'd 



His towers Tantallon vast; 

 Broad, massive, high, and stretching far. 

 And held impregnable in war. 

 On a projecting rock they rose, 

 And round three sides the ocean flows,. 

 The fourth did battled walls enclose. 

 And double mound and fosse. " 



So sung the border bard ; but Tantallon is noM' a breed- 

 ing-place for jackdaws, runaway pigeons, and kestrels, 

 and its old stones are probably as well employed in 

 this capacity as in harbouring thieves and barons. Ha- 

 ving taken up another hand at Canty Bay, we proceed- 



