110 FORAYS AMONG SALMON AND DEER. 



previously alarmed, many of them passed on, and took 

 shelter in the caves ahead of us, thus rousing many 

 others before our approach ; and as we moved on we 

 found them more on the alert, and prepared to antici- 

 pate us by flight. 



Having enjoyed considerable amusement in this way, 

 we passed on to a part of the shore where the cliff was 

 clothed with short turf almost down to the water's 

 edge, and scattered over with blocks of stone of various 

 shapes and dimensions. Here we saw the rabbits feed- 

 ing, and gamboling about in numbers ; many at too 

 great a height to be within range, while others were 

 sufficiently low to offer a shot, had they not sought 

 shelter behind the blocks of stone as we approached. 

 We had therefore to " bide our time," and take an 

 occasional " pop-shot " whenever one, more venture- 

 some than the rest, left his position and exposed him- 

 self to view. Many a shot was thus fired in vain, and 

 eventually, after lauding and attempting, at the 

 imminent peril of our shins and necks, to drive them 

 from their places of security, we once more betook our- 

 selves to the water, with not more than five or six of 

 them as the guerdon of our pains. 



Our next point was the hernery, which we found at 

 a short distance further along the shore ; and I could 

 not but admire the skill with which these birds had 

 chosen the locale of their colony. The position was 

 of this character, a diminutive bay or cove, above 

 which the butting cliff, scooped out into' a semicircular 

 form, rose perpendicularly from the beach to a height 

 of between three and four hundred feet, its face clad 

 with a huge forest of ivy, hanging in massy folds oi 

 luxuriant drapery, and springing from two or three 

 stems, thick as the boll of an ordinary oak. The spot 

 was indeed a miniature model of that quiet little cove 



