THE CORMORANT. 163 
have cheered its walls. But the tide of prosperity 
has ceased to flow. Something or other seems to 
have intervened, and turned it down another chan- 
nel: for now the once well-known Buckton Hall is 
a neglected mansion ; and the stranger, as he passes 
near it, sees at one glance that it is no longer a 
place of rendezvous for the great. The present 
tenant kindly allowed the horse and gig, which I 
had hired in Bridlington Quay, to be put under 
cover till I returned from the cliff. 
My guide, whose name was Mellor, and who 
possesses a very accurate knowledge of all the birds 
in this district, having mustered men and ropes in 
the village of Buckton, we proceeded across the 
table land to the Raincliff, which forms a perpendi- 
cular wall to the ocean, 140 yards high. Whilst I 
was descending this precipice, thousands of guille- 
mots and razorbills enlivened the interesting scene. 
Some were going down to the water, others were 
ascending from it; while every ledge of the rock, 
as far as my eye could reach, was literally covered 
with birds of the same species. The cormorants 
stayed not to witness my unwelcome descent into 
their ancient and almost inaccessible settlement. 
They all took wing, as soon as we reached the edge 
of the cliff, and went far away to sea. It was a 
difficult matter to procure their eggs; for the nests 
were built in: places where the rocks overhung 
them; and it was only by my giving the rope a 
swinging motion, and then taking advantage of it, 
as it brought me to the face of the cliff, that I was 
enabled to get a footing on the ledges which con- 
M 2 
