ANSERES. 291 



zostera contrasting against the long bright crest of 

 the surf, or in the middle distance some bare 

 posts set up as a land-mark, or the timbers of 

 some ill-fated vessel rising above the quicksand, 

 there reigns, on the contrary, a solitude of 

 another kind ; it is now broken only by the dis- 

 tant roll of the surf, by the shrill pipe of the 

 Ring-dotterel, or the glance of its flight as it 

 rises noiselessly ; a solitary Gull or Tern that has 

 lagged from the flock may sail along, uttering, as 

 it were, an unwilling inward sound as it passes 

 the intruder; every thing is calm and still, the 

 sensation increased by the hot glimmer that 

 spreads along the sands ; there is no voice, there 

 is no animal life. During winter the scene may 

 at first sight appear nearly similar; the warm 

 and flickering haze is changed for a light that 

 can be seen into ; the noise of the surge comes 

 deeper through the clear air of frost, and with 

 it at intervals hoarse sounds and shrill whistles, 

 to which the ear is unaccustomed ; acres of dark 

 masses are seen, which may be taken for low 

 rocks or scalps, and the line of the sea in the 

 bays contains something which rises and falls, 

 and seems as if it were about to be cast on 

 shore with every coming swell. To the old 

 sportsman all these signs are familiar, and he 

 knows their meaning; but to one who has for 

 the first time trodden these flat coasts, some dis- 

 tant shot or other alarm first explains every thing. 

 The line of the coast is now one dark moving 

 mass; the air seems alive with water-fowl, and 

 is filled with sounds that rise and fall, and vary 

 as the troops wheel around; and this continues 

 until they have again settled to their rest. As 



