ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 57 



circle far aloft and fill the air " with sounds discordant 

 in sonorous chaos," others rested in vacant immobility, 

 looking like stuffed specimens effectively arranged 

 upon a noble mass of artificial rockwork for some 

 Brobdignagian museum. Nothing can exceed the 

 unsullied cleanliness of these birds. In no single 

 instance can you observe a feather draggled, or soiled, 

 or ruffled; the snowy whiteness of their plump, 

 smooth breasts, surpassing in clearness the chastest 

 lustre of the spring-born lily, or the unspotted surface 

 of the winter's drift. Far above, upon the lofty 

 grassy steeps, but more sparingly disposed, the herring 

 gull as usual may be seen to pair. A few razorbills 

 have taken up their quarters in the lower crannies, 

 and, resting upright on their short, flat feet, scrutinise 

 our movements with a grave attention, like the bench 

 of bishops watching with absorbed gaze the progress of 

 a warm debate. 



So beautiful, so very beautiful, was the sight that I 

 paused long and longer still ere I dared to fire my gun, 

 and thus introduce discord and confusion into this 

 magnificently grouped array. I was also undesirous 

 to do so before I had further inspected the scene while 

 under its present aspect of comparative repose. 

 Accordingly, striking sail and depending on the oars, 

 we .now rounded a bluff rocky headland, and entered a 

 more cavernous and indented inlet overhung by a 

 frowning and tremendous height. Here a variation 



