Outer Fames. 33 



likely soon to fade, without being away from Pall 

 Mall more than a day. 



The best time to visit the islands is usually about 

 the last week of May or first week of June, to see 

 eggs ; or, to see the young birds, three weeks or a 

 month later. It was not until the I4th of June that 

 we were able to make the trip, but owing to the 

 lateness of the season we found ourselves early enough 

 to see the eggs in perfection, scarcely any of the birds 

 having hatched off. 



When we had arrived at Bamborough the afternoon 

 before the weather had not been encouraging. It 

 was blowing a quarter of a gale, with heavy thunder 

 showers ; but in the evening the sky had cleared a 

 little and the sun found its way through the clouds, 

 to set in a wild confusion of banked reds, yellows, 

 and purples. We woke to find the morning bright, 

 and by the time we had breakfasted and found our 

 way to North Sunderland, three miles off, where a 

 boat was awaiting us, the wind had died away, and 

 the only fault, if any fault could be found with the 

 day, was that there was scarcely breeze enough for 

 sailing. 



Our object being to see as much as we could of the 

 birds, and opportunities uncertain, as threatening 

 clouds manoeuvred still on the horizon, we steered at 

 once for the Outer Islands, the chief nesting places, 

 leaving a mile or two to the left the inner group, 

 which are well worth a special visit : Fame, with its 

 chapels and its " churn," a rock-bridged cleft, through 

 which at half-tide, when the wind is blowing heavily 

 from the north, the sea is said to spout in columns 

 ninety feet high, a statement the truth of which we 

 were happily unable to test for ourselves ; the two 

 " Wide-opens " ; the " Scar Cars " ; and four or five 



