36C 



HISTORY OF 



water, while the lagiiig of the sea makes the place inaccessible 

 from below. These are the situations to which sea-fowl chietly 

 resort, and bring up their young in undisturbed security. 



Those who have never observed our boldest coasts, have no idea 

 of their tremendous sublimity. The boasted works of art, the 

 highest towers, and the noblest domes, are but ant-hills when put 

 in comparison : the single cavity of a rock often exhibits a coping 

 higher than the ceiling of a Gothic Cathedral. The face of the 

 shore offers to the view a wall of massive stone, ten times higher 

 than our tallest steeples. What should we think of a precipice 

 three quarters of a mile in height ? and yet the rocks of St Kilda 

 are still higher! What must be our awe to approach the edge 

 of that impending height, and to look down on the unfathomable 

 vacuity below ; to ponder on the terrors of falling to the bottom, 

 where the waves that swell like mountains are scarcely seen to 

 curl on the surface, and the roar of an ocean a thousand leagues 

 broad appears softer than the murmur of a brook ! it is in these 

 formidable mansions that myriads of sea-fowls are for ever seen 

 sporting, flying in security down the depth, half a mile beneath 

 the feet of the spectator. The crow and the chough avoid those 

 frightful precipices ; they choose smaller heights, where they are 

 less exposed to the tempest ; it is the cormorant, the gannet, the 

 tarrock, and the terne, that venture to these dreadful retreats, 

 and claim an undisturbed possession. To the spectator from 

 above, those birds, though some of them are above the size of an 

 eagle, seem scarcely as larye as a swallow; and their loudest 

 screaming is scarcely perceptible. 



But the generality of our shores are not so formidable. 

 Though they may rise two hundred fathoms above the surface, 

 yet it often happens that the water forsakes the shore at the de- 

 parture of the tide, and leaves a noble and delightful walk for 

 curiosity on the beach. Not to mention the variety of shells 

 with which the sand is strewed, the lofty rocks that hang ovei 

 the spectator's head, and that seem but just kept from falling, 

 produce in him no unpleasing gloom. If to this be added the 

 fluttering, the screaming, and the pursuits of myriads of water, 

 birds, all either intent on the duties of incubation, or roused at 

 the presence of a stranger, nothing can compose a scene of more 

 peculiar solemnity. To walk along the shore when the tide is 

 departed, or to sit in the hollow of a rock when it is come in, 



