138 THE MOOR AND THE LOCH. 



THE BASS ROCK. 



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 we near 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 solans, 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 appearance 

 no bigger than blackbirds, were peering over the side. I 

 could scarcely believe they were not jackdaws. The peregrine 

 falcon had also built outside the tower, and was wheeling 

 aloft in company with the geese. I pointed him out as a 

 sparrow-hawk, and was equally astonished when assured by 

 the old boatman that he was " the blue hunting hawk." His 

 nest was afterwards harried by a boat's crew from North Ber- 

 wick, who came for the purpose in the night. Well did I 

 know the peregrine, and had often admired his graceful bear- 

 ing among his native hills. The sable tenant of desolation 

 was an equally familiar acquaintance ; and that I should have 

 so strangely mistaken both, was sufficient proof of the vast 

 height to which I looked. 



Intending to shoot some specimens, I had brought my duck- 



