164 THE INHABITANTS OF THE SEA. 
giant carrion. They also feed upon the large cephalopods 
that inhabit mid-ocean, and remains of these molluscs are 
generally found in their stomach. The Auckland and Campbell 
islands seem to be two of their favourite breeding-stations. 
When Sir James Ross visited these secluded groups, the birds 
were so assiduously breeding as to allow themselves to be 
taken with the hand. The nest is built of sand mixed with 
dried leaves and grasses, generally eighteen inches high, with 
a diameter of twenty-seven inches at the surface, and of six feet 
at the base. While breeding, the snow-white head and neck of 
the bird project above the grasses, and betray it from afar. 
On endeavouring to drive it. from its eggs it defends itself va- 
liantly, snapping with its beak. Its greatest enemy is a fierce 
raptorial gull (Lestris antarcticus), which is always on the look- 
out, and, as soon as the albatross leaves the nest, shoots down 
upon it to steal the eggs. 
Swift flies the albatross, but fancy travels with still more rapid 
wings through the realms of space, and leads us suddenly from 
the lone islands of the Pacific to the north of another hemisphere. 
Saint Kilda rises before us —a glorious sight when the last rays 
of the setting sun, as he slowly sinks upon the ocean, light up 
with dazzling splendour the towering cliffs of the island, which 
one might almost fancy to be some huge volcano newly emerged 
from the deep, or the impregnable bulwark of some enchanted 
land. St. Kilda, one of the most striking examples of the grandest 
rock-scenery, plunges on all sides perpendicularly into the sea, 
so that although six miles in circumference, it affords but one 
single landing-place, accessible only in fair weather. Four of 
the promontories are perforated, and as many large caverns are 
turmed, through which the sea rolls its heaving billows. From 
the eastern extremity, which rises nearly perpendicularly to the 
height of 1380 feet, and is supposed to be the loftiest precipice 
in Britain, the view is of indescribable sublimity. Far 
below, the long heavy swell of the ocean is seen climbing up 
the dark rock, whose base is clothed with sheets of snow-white 
foam. In many places the naked rock disappears under the 
myriads of sea-birds sitting upon their nests; the air is literally 
clouded with them, and the water seems profusely dotted with 
the larger fowl, the smaller ones being nearly invisible on ac- 
count of the distance. Every narrow ledge is thickly covered 
