NORTH DEVON AND ST. HELENA. 313 



' Boat Point.' The long rows of tent-rings were unequivocal 

 witnesses that we were not the first who had found a sheltered 

 and comfortable camping-ground here. In one place a fire had 

 been made, and we found there a quantity of bones and train-oil 

 mixed and burned together. We took a lump of it with us. 



What a turmoil was there ! Thousands upon thousands of 

 black guillemots were nesting in the steep mountain-sides. Birds 

 flew ceaselessly backwards and forwards between their nests and 

 the sea for the whole of the twenty-four hours. When they 



FROM ST. HELENA. 



came whirring down from the cliffs they cut through the air like 

 projectiles. Their flight was so rapid that we could hardly see 

 them ; we could even hear the rush of their wings through the air 

 as we sat talking in the tent. Out on the water they swarmed 

 like ants in an anthill ; the eiders and black guillemots kept things 

 going ceaselessly with their shrilling and screaming high up in the 

 treble, while the walruses grunted a steady-going bass, sometimes 

 solo, sometimes in chorus. 



From Baadodden our idea was to go south-westward, along the 

 coast, but we thought it wiser to find out first what our prospects 



