BIRD ROCK 



145 



spare time in winter for this work. I have often seen the grow- 

 ing ships of perhaps sixty tons in their dooryards half a mile 

 from the water and a hundred feet above its level. When com- 

 pleted, they would be slid down movable ways to the destined 

 place. The New England craft were built in yards by men who 

 did nothing else, who were selected and trained for their work, 

 and who developed the qualities of artists, where only such 

 qualities can be developed, in schools shaped by approved mas- 

 ters. A high-grade ship is in its way the product of a fine art 

 and can only be made where traditions have been insensibly 

 gathered and transmitted by masters. 



Our first goal in the St. Lawrence was the Elizabeth Islands, 

 where we were to see the Triassic sandstones of that basin. 

 There we spent a day or two. I recall the problem as to the 

 origin of the rocks in the interesting sections of those shores. 

 There I first felt that problem as a large matter. What most in- 

 terested me were the sea caves, especially those of Entry Island ; 

 into one of these I paddled my boat until almost out of light of 

 day. I was familiar with caverns of the limestone type, such as 

 abound in Kentucky, and had explored them much; those 

 structures are far more varied than any shore caves cut by the 

 waves can be, but those sea caverns of Entry Island had a qual- 

 ity of majesty, a weirdness, I had never dreamed of, perhaps 

 because they combined the mysteries of the deeps, the under 

 earth and the sea. 



From Entry Island we bore away for Bird Rock, that wonder- 

 ful rookery of the St. Lawrence. We came to it in a fortunate 

 time, when the sea was smooth enough for landing. When so 

 far away that the lone isle was not visible, we noted that it was 

 coming nearer by the steady increase in the number of marine 

 birds gannets, gulls, and sea-pigeons which were feeding 

 on the waters, or in flight to and from their nesting-places. The 

 rock itself proved to be a little isle, perhaps two miles long, with 

 its cliffs rising a hundred feet or so above the water, made of 

 protruding horizontal layers of a hard Triassic rock with inter- 



