CH. VI. . ISLAND OF HANDA. 99 



cat, looking wistfully towards the mainland. As 

 all the inhabitants had left the island early in the 

 spring for America, this cat had probably remained 

 behind, and had made her living as she best might 

 out of small birds, dead fish, etc. I could not 

 help being struck with the attitude of the poor 

 creature, as she sat there looking at the sea, and 

 having as disconsolate an air as any deserted 

 damsel. " She is wanting the ferry," was the quaint 

 and not incorrect suggestion of one of our boatmen. 

 Having run our boat into a small sandy creek, we 

 landed. Here, as everywhere round the coast, is a 

 fishing-station of Mr. Hogarth's, if a hut, the sum- 

 mer residence of two forlorn fishermen, can be called 

 a fishing-station. We borrowed another coil of 

 ropes from these men, and proceeded to the northern 

 side of the island, where the perpendicular rocks 

 form the breeding -places of the sea-fowl. The 

 distance across the island I should reckon at nearly 

 two miles, and it is a continued slope of green 

 pasture. I passed several huts, the former inhabit- 

 ants of which had all left the place a few weeks 

 before ; and, notwithstanding the shortness of the 

 time, the turf walls were already tenanted and com- 

 pletely honeycombed by countless starlings, who 

 seemed not the least shy, but, on the contrary, kept 

 their ground, and chattered away as if they looked 



