CHAP. xi. HUGH MILLER'S DESCRIPTION. 



143 



how many marvels have we witnessed ! how vast an 

 amount of the vital mechanisms of a perished creation 

 have we not passed over! Our walk has been along 

 ranges of sepulchres, greatly more wonderful than those 

 of Thebes or Petrea, and a thousand times more ancient. 



DUNNET SANDS. 



There is no lack of life along the shores of the little 

 solitary bay. The shriek of the sparrowhawk mingles 

 from the cliffs with the hoarse deep croak of the raven , 

 the cormorant, on some wave- encircled ledge, hangs out 

 his dark wing to the breeze ; the spotted diver, plying 

 his vocation on the shallows beyond, dives and then 

 appears, and dives and appears again, and we see the 

 glitter of scales from his beak ; and far away in the offing 

 the sunhght falls on a scull of sea-gulls, that flutter 



