During the same season, upon the low sandy or muddy 

 coasts, or extensive merses, where the tide recedes for 

 miles, as on Holy Island, and the only interruption on the 

 outline is the slight undulation of some mussel-scaups, the 

 dark colour of some bed of "Zostera Marina" contrasting 

 against the long bright crest of the surf, or in the middle 

 distance some bare posts set up as a land-mark, or the 

 timbers of some ill-fated vessels rising above the quicksand, 

 there reigns, on the contrary, a solitude of another kind ; 

 it is now broken only by the distant roll of the surf, by the 

 shrill pipe of the ring-dotterel, or the glance of its flight 

 as it rises noiselessly ; a solitary gull or tern that has lagged 

 from the flock may sail along, uttering as it were an 

 unwilling inward sound as it passes the intruder; every- 

 thing is calm and still, the sensation increased by the hot 

 glimmer that spreads along the sands; there is no voice, 

 there is no animal life. 



During winter the scene may at first sight appear nearly 

 similar; the warm and flickering haze is changed for a 

 light that can be seen into ; the noise of the surge comes 

 deeper through the clear air of frost, and with it at intervals 

 hoarse sounds and shrill whistles, to which the ear is 

 unaccustomed ; acres of dark masses are seen, which may 

 be taken for low rocks or scaups, and the line of the sea 

 in the bays contains something which rises and falls, and 

 seems as if it were about to be cast on shore with every 

 coming swell. 



To sportsmen these signs are familiar, and they know 

 their meaning ; but to one who has for the first time trodden 

 these flat coasts some distant shot or other alarm first 

 explains everything. The line of the coast is now one dark 

 moving mass; the air seems alive with water-fowl, and is 

 filled with sounds that rise and fall, and vary as the troops 

 wheel around, and this continues until they have again 

 settled to their rest; as dusk approaches, these sounds are 

 gradually resumed, at first coming from the ground, as 

 warnings that it is time to be alert; as the darkness and 



