APRIL 1903. 



WARM, sunny weather in the earlier part of the month raised 

 our hopes of a change of diet, and, coupled with the early 

 appearance of the paidlefish spawn, our expectations of an 

 early fishing ran high. On the 8th, the capture of three 

 small cods in " Johnny Gray " track increased our hopes, arid 

 again on the 9th, eight were taken, but since then we've had 

 no other. Cold, blowy weather, with heavy seas, has rendered 

 all attempts in this direction futile ; however, the attraction 

 as evidenced by the stomachs of those captured still in- 

 creases, and numbers of bloated paidle "hens," with their 

 lower jaws portruding like a prize bull-dog, are seen cruising 

 sluggishly among the tangles in quest of a suitable nesting 

 place. The nests this season are unusually small ; sometimes 

 they contain as much ova as would fill a quart pot. Each 

 ovum is a sixteenth of an inch in diameter, and were all 

 permitted to come to maturity instead of becoming food for 

 other fishes as most do would soon fill the sea of themselves. 

 " All nature is at one with rapine and war," and necessarily so, 

 otherwise we would soon be crowded out of existence. 



Our winter residents, the eiders and longtails, have 

 gradually disappeared. On the 4th, a representative pair of 

 each alone remained, but these have now thought better of it 

 and gone the way of their more sensible comrades. A few 

 gulls, herring, and kittiwakes hover about, and guillemots and 

 gannets are now common. 



The gannets, I am informed by the keepers on the Bass 

 Rock, commenced laying there on the llth. The solitary egg 

 these birds deposit is heavily coated with lime, which, when 

 scrubbed off, exposes a pale blue surface. This coating is 

 probably the origin of the fallacy that these birds ensure the 



