MOTHER CAREY'S CHICKENS 83 



colony to take advantage of the uncertain sunlight, 

 which, indeed, utterly failed us after only an hour's 

 work. But, as I had no camera, I made the best of it, 

 giving all my time to studying the ways of the birds. 

 Besides, I had come to stay on the peak all night; 

 I could do my work well enough in the dark. But 

 I could not do it in the wind and rain. 



The sun went into the clouds about four o'clock, 

 but so absorbed was I in watching, and so thick was 

 the air with wings, so clangorous with harsh tongues, 

 that I had not seen the fog moving in, or noticed 

 that the gray wind of the morning had begun to 

 growl about the crags. Looking off to seaward, I 

 now saw that a heavy bank of mist had blurred the 

 sky-line and settled down upon the sea. The wind 

 had freshened; a fine, cold drizzle was beginning to 

 fall, and soon came slanting across the peak. The 

 prospect was grim and forbidding. Then the rain 

 began. The night was going to be dark and stormy, 

 too wet and wild for watching, here where I must 

 hang on with my hands or else slip and go over 

 down down to the waves below. 



We started to descend at once, while there was 

 still light enough to see by, and before the rocks 

 were made any slipperier by the rain. We did not 

 fear the wind much, for that was from the north, 

 and we must descend by the south face, up which we 

 had come. 



I was deeply disappointed. My night with the 



