FATAL ACCIDENT. 51 



cling about the cliffs ; troops of guillemots were perched 

 upon the ledges, one and another every instant drop- 

 ping down, like an arrow, into the sea, and presently 

 returning with the captured prey; and upon the sharp 

 edge of an insular rock outside the Shutter, known 

 as the Black Bock, sat a row of cormorants, preening 

 their glossy plumage after the morning's meal. 



We rose and pursued our sinuous way along the 

 turf, by the margin of the precipitous cliffs of granite. 

 A little to the north of the Limekiln we came sud- 

 denly on the edge of a deep cove, at the mouth of 

 which rose an enormous mass of rock, with walls as 

 steep as those of a church, called Goat Island. It 

 T^as the scene of a fatal accident not long ago. A 

 party had come over to visit the island as we had 

 done. A young man of their number must needs try, 

 in spite of warning and entreaty, to climb Goat Is- 

 land, with no other purpose than that of displaying 

 his agility and his hardihood. He had proceeded 

 some distance up the dizzy height, when, his foot 

 slipping, he fell on the stones beneath, and broke his 

 back. 



Into this cove we descended by means of the round 

 and soft, yet sufficiently firm, hillocks of thrift, jump- 

 ing from one to anotner. When these ceased, we had 

 to scramble down by the fissures of the rock, until we 

 came to a cyclopeari wilderness of huge blocks and 

 boulders of granite, strewn over the bottom, and piled 

 one upon another, in grand confusion. They were 

 worn smooth by the action of the waves, which had 



