WATER FOWL. 381 



are the situations to which sea fowl chiefly resort, 

 and bring up their young in undisturbed security. 

 Those who have never observed our boldest 

 coasts, have no idea of their tremendous subli- 

 mity. The boasted works of art, the highest 

 towers, and the noblest domes, are but ant-hills 

 when put in comparison ; the single cavity of a 

 rock often exhibits a coping higher than the ciel- 

 ing of a Gothic cathedral. The face of the shore 

 offers to the view a wall of massive stone ten 

 times higher than our tallest steeples. What 

 should we think of a precipice three quarters of a 

 mile in height ? and yet the rocks of St Kilda 

 are still higher ! What must be our awe to ap- 

 proach the edge of that impending height, and to 

 look down on the unfathomable vacuity below ! 

 to ponder on the terrors of falling to the bottom, 

 where the waves that swell like mountains are 

 scarcely seen to curl on the surface, and the roar 

 of an ocean a thousand leagues broad appears 

 softer than the murmur of a brook ! It is in these 

 formidable mansions that myriads of sea fowls are 

 for ever seen sporting, flying in security down 

 the depth, half a mile beneath the feet of the 

 spectator. The crow and the chough avoid those 

 frightful precipices ; they choose smaller heights, 

 where they are less exposed to the tempest : it is 

 the cormorant, the gannet, the tarrock, and the 

 terne, that venture to these dreadful retreats, and 

 claim an undisturbed possession. To the specta- 

 tor from above, those birds, though some of them 

 are above the size of an eagle, seem scarcely as 



