212 HAUNTS OF THE SHEARWATER 



the south off the French coast, found itself entangled 

 with fatal results on the night of the 23rd October 

 1707. 



The coarse granite on which Annet, in common with 

 the rest of the islands of the beautiful Scilly archipelago 

 is based, is painted to high- water mark brown and green 

 with seaweed, and higher up stained to a bright orange 

 with lichens or grey -bearded with Ipeland moss. 

 Farther inland it crops up in all directions in needles 

 and pyramids, which sparkle in sunshine after a shower 

 as if set with diamonds. 



The chief part of the island is covered with thrift, 

 which has grown on the dust of its ancestors until 

 it has formed a light spongy peat of its own, extending 

 in places to several feet in depth, honeycombed, more 

 particularly at the eastern end, with burrows. 



On landing though Black-backed and Herring Gulls 

 are in plenty, and the seaside rocks are dotted with 

 Puffins and Shags there is nothing to be seen which 

 could suggest to an explorer, unwarned, that he stands 

 on the chief English breeding-place of the most power- 

 ful and graceful on the wing, and excepting perhaps 

 its own smaller near relative the Storm Petrel the 

 most poetical in association of European birds. The 

 Shearwater during the nesting season is nocturnal in 

 its habits, leaving the nest, if at all, only after sunset, 

 and returning before daylight. 



It is not until the visitor starts to walk over the 

 pink-carpeted and apparently untenanted table-land, 

 and finds himself tumbling in ankle-deep every ten 



