, 



62 SUMMER 



three. And here we had another and a different sight * y 

 of the wild life. It covered every crag. I clutched it / 

 in my hands ; I crushed it under my feet ; it was thick \j \ 

 in the air about me. My narrow path up the face of 

 the rock was a succession of sea-bird rookeries, of 

 crowded eggs, and huddled young, hairy or naked or 

 wet from the shell. Every time my fingers felt for a 

 crack overhead they touched something warm that 

 rolled or squirmed; every time my feet moved under, 

 me, for a hold, they pushed in among top-shaped eggs r 

 that turned on the shelf or went over far beloAv ; and 1 

 whenever I hugged the pushing wall I must bear off j 

 from a mass of squealing, struggling, shapeless 

 things, just hatched. And down upon me, as rook- 

 ery after rookery of old birds whirred in fright from! 

 their ledges, fell crashing eggs and unfledged young, " 

 that the greedy gulls devoured ere they touched the , 

 sea. 



I was midway in the climb, at a bad turn round a J 

 point, edging inch by inch along, my face pressed \ 

 against the hard face of the rock, my feet and fingers c 

 . gripping any crack or seam they could feel, when I 

 out of the deep space behind me I caught the swash ( 

 of waves. Instantly a cold hand seemed to clasp mef 

 from behind. 



I flattened against the rock, my whole body, myl^ 

 very mind clinging desperately for a hold, a fall- I 

 ing fragment of shale, a gust of wind, the wing-stroke 

 of a frightened bird, enough to break the hold and 



