CIYAPPER “XXX 
THREE MURDERERS 
PLenk they are. The ledges are quite bare—not 
a bird to be seen there—nothing but the spray 
and the wild winds to love them now. It was what 
I had expected, had been sure of; but again I felt 
bitter disappointment. It is more than disappoint- 
ment——a sadness and emptiness of heart at finding 
these accustomed tenants, that have for days given 
life and beauty and domestic happiness to the desolate 
frowning precipice, gone, and their known places 
void. How I miss them! I retract now what I 
said before about wild creatures giving no relief to 
the sense of solitude. These guillemots did, I be- 
lieve, and | feel lonelier now without them. And so, 
whilst I lay warm under the bedclothes, were you, you 
little mite of a guillemot—but stay, I have apostro- 
phised you once already, and am not going to do it 
again. 
There was rain, mist, and wind extraordinary to- 
day, but the sea dashed finely over the rocks. The 
pool, though a haven, was often seething, yet I saw 
Bottle-nose, and, later, a common seal, in it. The 
latter was the only one I watched. He came up at 
intervals of a few minutes only, and, as on former 
occasions, always rose perpendicularly in the water, 
with his nose pointed to the sky. In this position he 
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