THE HOME OF THE SHEARWATER 



A SLIPPERY grass slope, broken here and there 

 by outcrops of grey rock, rising steeply from the 

 actual wave-washed cliffs to over 500 feet above the sea; 

 a few cushions of pink thrift, a little sheep-bitten gorse, 

 short and thickly matted, and ferns or bracken in the 

 shelter of the rocky cracks ; below, the racing water, near 

 two miles of leaping waves, deep eddies, and smooth 

 swirls of oily water, which even on the calmest day gives 

 evidence of the power of great tides rushing through the 

 narrow passage between the island and the point of 

 furthest Lleyn. Such is the home of the Manx shear- 

 water on Ynys Enlli, the Island of the Currents, better 

 known as Bardsey Island, or to the natives as " the 

 Bardsey." Ray named the shearwater " the puffin of 

 the Isle of Man," but it is doubtful if the bird now nests 

 on the Calf; indeed it has been questioned whether it 

 ever did. Other stations appear to have been deserted, 

 but there are still considerable colonies on many little 

 frequented islands round our shores, and on Bardsey a 

 fair number of shearwaters rear their young. 



" Beyond Lhyn," says Giraldus, " there is a small 

 island inhabited by very religious monks, called Cadibes, 

 or Colidei. This island, either from the wholesomeness 

 of its climate, owing to its vicinity to Ireland, or rather 

 from some miracle obtained by the merits of the saints, 

 has this wonderful peculiarity, that the oldest people 

 die first, because diseases are uncommon, and scarcely 

 any die except from extreme old age. Its name is Enhli 

 in the Welsh, and Berdesey in the Saxon language; and 



27 



