THE BASS EOCK 



THIS singular cliff of the sea has been the subject of many 

 pages and many prints ; but no description can lessen the 

 amazement felt on beholding it for the first time. I had 

 been familiar with much of our sternest coast scenery, had 

 shot sea-fowl on the Clet of Caithness, and stalked seals 

 under the savage and perpendicular rocks of Morayshire ; 

 but there is a grandeur about this solitary giant of the 

 deep which is different from any of the wildest scenes I 

 had gazed upon before. 



When nearing the Bass, the ochre-coloured lichen which 

 covers many of the rocks, contrasted with the white guano 

 of the sea-fowl, and the white feathers of the solands, has 

 what painters call a " fine pictorial effect." But when 

 the boatmen pull slowly under the beetling cliff, studded 

 from top to bottom with rank upon rank of living fowl, 

 one is rather paralysed than impressed with the stupendous 

 scene. 



At the time I was there, a raven's nest was fixed near 

 the top of the western side. Three of the young, in 



