196 DAYS STOLEN FOR SPORT 



plenty left, but we were not going to let the rogues 

 know we were after them. 



We got a fish, and sometimes two, each time we 

 passed what appeared to me to be a shoulder of the 

 hidden rock, as there the water shot out from its 

 course, leaving in its place foaming eddies, underneath 

 which no doubt Httle fish came for shelter, and, while 

 hunting these, the pollack saw our lures. 



We got our next success, five good fish, at a rocky 

 promontory where the water kissed the point with 

 a soft lapping sound and then hurried ofi, carrying 

 with it other water that eddied out to meet it. When 

 round this point our course was held towards a rock 

 whose head was black with, to many. Nature's most 

 repulsive handiwork, ghoul-hke cormorants. Some 

 stood with legs apart and wings outspread to catch 

 the breeze, while others monotonously moved their 

 heads from side to side, thus causing their weird green 

 eyes to glitter in the sun. It must be supposed that 

 these creatures serve some good purpose, but I could 

 wish the gluttons might be banished until that purpose 

 is discovered. They allowed us to come quite close 

 before they tumbled off, leaving the rock none the 

 prettier for their visits. I little thought we were to 

 have a turn round this, but so it happened, and we 

 got three fish; so pollack, of the size we caught, do 

 not m.ind this Satanic-looking bird. 



As we made for the next ground we heard the 

 puffings, and saw the passing, of a hastening school 

 of porpoise, whose speed and gambols conveyed the 

 notion that they were hurrying off to some merry- 

 making. There was plenty to make us feel the wild- 

 ness of the place, for, added to the other sights, there 

 came to view, just as we received the order to let 

 out again, in the depths that run close to the rocky 

 sides of the bay, a monstrous, gray-headed seal. Its 

 rising was commented on by our second boatman, 

 -^vho seemed to give the creature a name of recognition 



