64 SUMMER 



On, up along the narrow back, or blade, of the 

 rock, and over the peak, were the well-spaced nests 

 of the Brandt's cormorants, nests the size of an ordi- 

 nary straw hat, made of sea-grass and the yellow- 

 flowered sulphur-weed that grew in a dense mat over 

 the north slope of the top, each nest holding four 

 long, dirty blue eggs or as many black, shivering 

 young ; and in the low sulphur-weed, all along the 

 roof-like slope of the top, built the gulls and the 

 tufted puffins ; and, with the burrowing puffins, often 

 in the same holes, were found the Kaeding's petrels; 

 while down below them, as up above them, all 

 around the rock-rim that dropped sheer to the sea, 

 stood the cormorants, black, silent, statuesque ; 

 and everywhere were nests and eggs and young, and 

 everywhere were flying, crying birds above, about, 

 and far below me, a whirling, whirring vortex of 

 wings that had caught me in its funnel. 



