AMONG THE WATER-FOWL 



ting half way there, we had to give it up, and going 

 ashore on the sand-bar that formed the east side of 

 the lagoon, solaced ourselves among the abounding 

 Gulls, Terns and Plovers. Here, after all, we probably 

 found more of interest than we should have done on 

 the rock, for on our return we met a man who had 

 been there a summer or two ago and had noticed 

 nothing but Terns breeding. It is thus probable 

 that the Cormorants use the rock merely as a roost. 



There were still the Black Guillemot and Raven 

 to be investigated, and not far from our head- 

 quarters was a most picturesque place where both 

 were found. This is a tremendous headland and 

 cliff that fronts on the inside bay well up toward its 

 head near East Point, known as " East Cape." One 

 can walk up a steep grassy slope in the rear, and 

 then look over a perpendicular cliff some two hun- 

 dred feet high. The soft rock keeps crumbling 

 away, and now and then a fragment falls, to add to 

 the pile of debris that has gathered below, which in 

 some places reaches half way up the cliff. 



As we approached it the first time, in a boat, a 

 flock of nearly twenty Ravens rose and hovered over 

 the summit, startled from their nests or roost on the 

 ledges, and flew away when they saw that we in- 

 tended to land. The debris from the cliff came to 

 the water's edge and made it a very rough spot for 

 disembarking. But, having an off-shore wind, we 

 luffed the boat up near enough to leap out. Black 

 Guillemots, hearing our voices, began to fly out 

 from holes high up above us, to settle well out in 

 the water. By clapping our hands and shouting, 

 we started a number more. Then, despite the 



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