Vol. XXI 

 1904 



1 DuTCHER, Report of Cojumittee on Bird Protection. I 59 



go there, well knowing that it might be days before another oppor- 

 tunity came, we took an early start. When half way across two 

 young terns with their parents were seen at sea. When about four 

 and a half miles from the island the first Puffin was seen flying 

 homeward. 



"Machias Seal Island consists of the island which bears the 

 name, containing about twenty acres, and Gull Rock, containing 

 about two acres. They are separated by a shallow passage, pass- 

 able to small boats at low water. Gull Rock lies a quarter of a 

 mile east of the northeast point of Seal Island. This is a low 

 granite ledge without soil, much seamed and cracked. The seams 

 in a few instances afforded nourishment for beach plantains and 

 Tissa fnaritm. The rock is covered with a greenish yellow 

 lichen. 



" This ledge is completely swept, it is said, by the sea during 

 heavy weather, and was swept during the rough weather experienced 

 July 31 while I was at Jonesport. Notwithstanding this statement 

 many young terns of various stages of growth were seen here, and 

 indeed the colony seemed to be in a good condition. 



" These islands are little visited except by the lighthouse attend- 

 ants, and this rock is exempt from the causes which have acted on 

 Seal Island. This rock affords no opportunity for other birds to 

 breed. 



" Machias Seal Island is also a low island with an abundance of 

 vegetable loam and is well clothed with herbage, chiefly grass. 

 The variety of plants is surprisingly small, and most of the charac- 

 teristic ones of the region are absent. It rises like an isolated hill- 

 top from the deep, submarine plain, and is swept on all sides by the 

 powerful tide current from the Bay of Fundy. Indeed, this current 

 is one of the potent factors to be considered in reaching the island, 

 for in a calm a craft is at its mercy, being borne onward as it hap- 

 pens to run. 



"The island has no beaches, the only semblance to one being 

 strewn with angular blocks of granite. The southern and south- 

 western end is a mass of granite, presenting an impassable barrier 

 to the ocean's storms. This rises not more than forty feet above 

 sea level ; yet, though so fully exposed, the sea is never known to 

 have broken across the island, as it frequently does at Matin icus 

 Rock which is much higher. 



