98 



THE OCEAN. 



and is confined, at least in large congregations, to 

 one or two localities, of which the principal are the 

 Bass Eock on the east coast of Scotland, and St. 

 Xilda, the most western of the Hebrides. On these 

 rocky isles they assemble in such countless hosts 

 that they can only be compared to a swarm of bees, 

 or to a shower of snow, the air being filled with them. 

 The inhabitants of the latter isle are said to consume 



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QA.NNET AND ODILLHMOT. 



twenty-two thousand of the young birds every year, 

 besides eggs. They are powerful birds upon the 

 wing, and pursue with much eagerness the shoals of 

 herrings and pilchards, on which they pounce mth 

 the perpendicular descent of a stone. Buchanan 

 conjectures that the Gannets destroy more than one 



