Wanderings of a Naturalist 



December morning. In very clear weather the reflection from 

 the light on May Island, at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, 

 can be made out, but bad weather usually follows this excep- 

 tional visibility. Only a couple of days previous to the relief 

 the Aquitania (46,000 tons) was seen passing south, quite 

 close in, on her way to the Tyne for a refit. She is probably 

 the largest vessel ever seen off the Northumbrian coast. 



Our stay at the rock is a short one, for the sky betokens 

 rough, dirty weather to come. Round the sun is a wide rain- 

 bow ring, and away to the north the sky is a stormy green, 

 with the Cheviots quite blotted out in the thick haze. 



From various directions the fishing cobles, their lines 

 hauled in, are making for the shelter of Seahouses harbour, 

 and it looks as though before night another gale will be 

 raging. 



The engine set a-going, we shove off, having as passenger 

 the principal lighthouse-keeper, due for his fortnight on 

 shore. Our course on the return journey is a more southerly 

 one, in order to allow for the drift of the ebb tide, and we 

 pass closer to that long and low rock known as the Crum- 

 stone, where is the chief breeding ground of the grey seal on 

 the Fames. Rare indeed is the day when the sea is suffi- 

 ciently calm to permit of a landing on this rock, for a swell 

 almost always breaks about it, and there is no landing-place 

 with any shelter. During fine, sunny days in November and 

 December grey seals, both young and old, may be seen 

 basking on the Crumstone, sharing the rock with gulls and 

 cormorants. 



As we pass the Crumstone the haze lifts somewhat, and 

 Bamburgh Castle can be seen standing, stern and grim, 

 away to the west. Farther north Lindisfarne Castle, on Holy 

 Island, can be made out, but all beyond is indistinct. Away 

 on the southern horizon the mainsail of a herring drifter 

 just rises above the water, but quickly becomes more distinct 

 as the boat, on her northerly course, approaches us. Outside 

 the islands a destroyer is steering for the Scottish coast. 



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