WIND AND FLIGHT 141 
extremity of Man. The wind blowing from the west 
struck against the clifis and was deflected upward. 
The Gulls, as they always do, saw their chance ; 
here was a fine, effort-saving up-draught. Flying 
to the base of the cliff, they were lifted to the top 
and far above it. They would then turn and face 
the wind, and, with the left wing leading, return to 
their night quarters, their heads being inclined just 
a little towards the south. Occasionally Gulls adopt 
this method of travelling when the wind blows 
almost at right angles to the course of a steamer. 
They will hang over it and keep pace with it, their 
wings pointing to bows and stern. The slight adjust- 
ments that they have to make for balancing purposes 
are unceasing, but they are easily distinguishable 
from the strong wing-strokes of ordinary flight. 
The two methods—advance in the teeth of the 
wind and advance with one wing leading—pass into 
one another. Obviously so, since, to get support 
from an upward trending wind, the Gull either 
faces it or much less often turns his tail towards 
it. Hence the necessity of progression sideways 
when he wishes to travel in a straight line at a 
right angle to the wind. When he travels at a half 
right angle to it, the line of advance will bisect the 
angle between the axis of his body and his wing. 
To put it less mathematically, he will be half-side 
face towards his line of advance. 
Soaring. 
Perhaps a definition of soaring may be useful. 
The word is used to describe the spiral ascent of a 
bird in the air, effected without taking any strokes 
