IjQ FALCO PEREGRINUS. 



seen from the coast as a white spot ; continue our ob- 

 servations on the top, and, having noted all that we ob- 

 serve, return to the boat, and row round the island, 

 shooting at the kittiwakes. It being the 19th of Au- 

 gust, the auks, guillemots, and puffins were all off with 

 their young, and scattered over the sea. The young 

 gannets were not yet able to fly, and many of the kit- 

 tiwakes still remained. Mr Audubon took with him 

 two of the former, and shot a good number of the lat- 

 ter ; but the cormorants, which he was anxious to see, 

 had all been shot in spring ; and no rock pigeons were 

 observed. I had visited the rock before, on the 13th 

 May 1831, accompanied by my wife, whose praises 

 must not be sung by me, and my esteemed friends 

 William Brand and William Stables, Esquires. I am, 

 therefore, enabled to present you with an account of 

 its wonders. 



The Bass is an abrupt rock, having a basis of about 

 a mile in circumference, and of an oblong form. The 

 cliffs are perpendicular in some places, overhanging in 

 others, and everywhere precipitous, excepting at the 

 narrow extremity next the land, where, sloping less 

 abruptly, they form at the base a low projection, on 

 which is the only landing place. Above this are the 

 ruins of the fortifications and houses, the Bass having 

 formerly been used as a state prison. The rocks are 

 in some places apparently two hundred feet in height, 

 and the summit, towards which the surface rises in an 

 irregular manner, is probably a hundred and fifty feet 

 higher. In as far as T observed, the whole mass is of 

 a uniform structure, consisting of trap, intermediate 

 between greenstone and clinkstone, with an uneven 



