AUGUST 1908. 



A MONTH of variable weather, much rain and heavy seas 

 occasionally compelling the boats engaged in the herring 

 fishing to run for it. Dearly bought indeed is their silvery 

 freight as they thresh their way homewards followed by a stiff 

 sou'-easter, their oilskins glistening with repeated drenchings, 

 and twelve miles' ploughing and a doubtful bar yet to be 

 negotiated ere safety is reached. How different ! no running 

 for home with us ; here we remain secure and comfortable 

 amid the hurly-burly, and trust to the stability of the grand 

 old building for our safety. Right well does it merit our con- 

 fidence. After a century's buffetings with the elements, not a 

 single sign of weakening in the never ceasing conflict is 

 evident. Surely a creditable testimony to the honesty of the 

 labour employed in its erection. 



That herring are occasionally in our vicinity is evidenced 

 by the industrious diving of the gannets, accompanied by 

 large flocks of gulls and terns, and also by the presence of 

 whales snorting and puffing close to the Rock. At low water 

 the reef is covered with gulls and terns resting from their 

 labours of the tide. Scorning such relaxment, the gannets, 

 wheeling and diving, maintain their ceaseless chase, establish- 

 ing their kinship with that bird of the Ancient Mariner, the 

 tireless albatross. A skua or robber-gull has billeted himself 

 amongst the gulls and terns, and is frequently seen harrying 

 them of their legitimate prey. It is surprising that the terns 

 at least, with their needle-pointed bills and belligerent pro- 

 pensities, suffer themselves to be so despoiled, and make no 

 attempt to combine and drive off this pirate on the fruits 

 of their industry. On the contrary, after a fruitless twisting 

 and doubling in mid-air, in which they are invariably worsted, 

 they seem to accept these periodic attacks of the skua as 

 a matter of course. 



