226 COUNTRY ESSAYS. 



teak to the Tyne. A small spar is rigged on this to carry lights 

 at night, for it would be an unpleasant rencontre to run foul of 

 these heavy balks of timber. 



But the look-out man here gives notice to the sportsmen to 

 take their pieces ; five hundred yards ahead is a noisy parlia- 

 ment of gulls, kittiwakes, and shearwaters, some floating in a dip- 

 ping white line, others wheeling over them with eager screams, 

 and every now and then splashing into the waves. There is 

 probably a " school of fish " underneath them, and they are 

 waiting to seize what fortune may throw in their way as the 

 fish rise near the surface, whither they are driven by the re- 

 peated attacks of clouds of dark skirmishers round the main 

 body of gulls, guillemots, razor-bills, puffins, and the like, 

 which dive underneath, and pursue the hapless fish in 

 deep water. Captain Try turns the steamer's head towards 

 the gulls ; we cower behind the bulwarks and anxiously 

 await the result. Long before we get within shot the cau- 

 tious shearwaters flap up and fly seaward; then the lesser 

 black-backed gulls follow their example. Up with a whirr 

 of numberless wings gets the whole body now, most of 

 them seeking the cliffs, while some cross the Firefly's bows and 

 give a chance of a shot. Two barrels of a breechloader are 

 emptied at them in vain j then they wheel and pass overhead, 

 so that the Vice-Commodore at the stern leaps up and also 

 gives his two barrels. Vain vain are the sportsman's efforts, 

 not a feather is damaged, and the gulls soon disappear, leaving 

 behind only a detachment of terns. These light troops wheel 

 and dash into the sea with loud clanging and screams at the 

 side of the Firefly, but prudently remain just out of shot. In- 

 deed, no cunning old carrion crow in a ploughed field in the 

 country seems to possess a better idea of distance than do the 

 terns. Somewhat annoyed at their ill luck (for one of the 

 sportsmen won a Queen's badge at Wimbledon, and reasonably 

 thought himself able to shoot a sea-gull), while comparing notes 



