132 BIRD STUDIES WITH A CAMERA 



quaint fisher folk whose patois French had a 

 gratefully foreign sound. 



Lodgings were secured at the home of a retired 

 fisherman, and immediately we sallied forth to pay 

 tribute to the Rock from the nearest point on the 

 mainland. Its size and precipitousness were both 

 surprising and impressive. Seen from the land it 

 seemed like the hull of some great ship which had 

 gone ashore here in the age of the Titans. Nearly 

 three hundred feet high at the bow, with a beam of 

 about one hundred, and a length over all of twelve 

 hundred feet, it was not likely to be boarded by the 

 most nimble seaman. 



Doubtless an expert climber, properly equipped 

 with ropes and assistants, might reach the summit ; 

 but as the last man to make the attempt, some fifty 

 years ago, lost his life, the town authorities have im- 

 posed a fine of five pounds on any one who shall be 

 found guilty of scaling or trying to scale the Rock, 

 and the law, incidentally, protects the birds as well 

 as man. 



The top of the Rock is occupied by a colony of 

 probably between two and three thousand Herring 

 Gulls and Double-crested Cormorants. The guide- 

 books array these birds in picturesque cohorts which 

 make the Cormorants' part of the Rock black, the 

 Gulls' white ; and they further state that should a 

 black bird chance to trespass on the Gulls' territory, 

 he is immediately surrounded by a consuming white 

 cloud, and vice versa. But be it said to the disgrace 

 of man and the credit of birds, that the Cormorants 

 and Gulls nest side by side apparently on terms of 

 the greatest amity. 



