384 THE WORLD OF THE SEA. 
is the Hebrides, and particularly the Island of St. Kilda, which is 
about one hundred miles in circumference. It rises perpendicularly 
from the bosom of the water, and forms at its eastern extremity the 
highest promontory of the British Isles, being 1,430 feet high. 
On approaching the Island of St. Kilda, a sight presents itself 
that well-nigh baffles description. The rocks are almost hidden 
by myriads of aquatic birds, all busy on their nests. Numberless 
swarms of the white gannet (Sz/a alba) absolutely whiten the 
summits on which they congregate; so that from a distance the 
crests and slopes appear to be covered with snow. The three- 
toed gulls and the blue-footed gulls have taken possession of all 
the less elevated peaks; lower down, the fulmars, or northern 
petrel, the puffins, and guillemots, have established themselves 
on all the slopes and declivities, and every spot where grass is 
to be found. On the edge of the sea, at the mouth of caves or 
hollows, perch the cormorants, upright and still, like sentinels at 
their posts. All around in the water, millions of birds of every 
species plunge, and dabble, each gathering its daily bread. 
Others fill the air with their harsh, sharp cries, flying from their 
nests to the sea, or from the sea to their nests ; calling their mates, 
and whirling in the air above them; or caressing their little ones, 
playing ‘with their comrades, and manifesting in a clamorous and 
lively manner their wants and fears, their joys and griefs. 
When a fragment of rock becomes detached, and rolls from 
the top of the island into the waves below, it becomes the signal 
for an extraordinary tumult. The whole colony is seized with 
alarm. The falling of the mass crushes the unlucky fulmars 
as they sit on their nests, and as it bounds along, it drags with it 
grass and sand, eggs and young chicks. The frightened birds rise 
into the air in clouds, but they soon come back to their nests, and 
all resumes its habitual tranquillity. In Holland, innumerable 
troops of gulls and sea-swallows make their nests every year in 
the Island of Eierland (land of eggs), and in other southern islands 
of the Texel, and also in Schleswig and Jutland. In the season 
for laying eggs, water-fowl arrive by millions. Many waders join 
the troop, and the rocks are literally covered with the eggs of gulls, 
sea-swallows, guillemots, penguins, and ducks, and even of oyster- 
catchers, plovers, and lapwings. 
