TO BIRD ROCK IN AN OPEN BOAT 163 
herds of seals which in thousands had been forced in around 
the Rock during March by the jamming ice-floes, the evening 
passed. At midnight we retired, but before that we could 
hear the screaming of the rising wind. The gale had started 
PUFFINS LEAVING THE ROCK 
in again, two hours after we reached the Rock. Had we been 
only a little later, our plight would have been something 
unpleasant to contemplate. 
The night was short indeed, for at a reasonably early hour 
I was out among the birds. It was a magnificent sight! The 
wind was blustering from the southwest, the sky clear, and 
the sea an angry array of white-caps, with surges thundering 
against the cliffs, and our landing-place a raging caldron of 
breakers. But the birds! The keeper’s belief that they had 
increased during the last four years was certainly right. The 
