102 ORNITHOLOGICAL RAMBLES. 



melting, brightened on the sails of our tight little bark, 

 and animated the buoyant aspirations of her jovial and 

 high-spirited crew. All the early portion of the 

 morning's sail was similar, so far as the land and sea 

 objects were concerned, to that which I have described 

 in my account of the voyage to Hoy. It took us a 

 long but pleasant time tacking up the wind to reach 

 a spot within a moderate walk by land, though we all 

 felt that if the breeze continued it could not fail to 

 bring us home apace. 



The busy little puffins dived and sported on the 

 distant wave, and the dark scarfes sped silently along. 

 11 A scene of more complete solitude, having all its 

 peculiarities heightened by the extreme serenity of the 

 weather, the quiet gray composed tone of the atmo- 

 sphere, and the perfect silence of the elements, could 

 hardly be imagined." The tide, although its upper 

 surface was but little stirred by the action of the air, 

 was running out with considerable rapidity and force ; 

 and the long and lessening waves, curling in their fall, 

 chased each other with a fringing surge along the 

 shelving sandy margin of the restless main. 



Out upon a flat and awkward " skerrie," around 

 which the waves were boiling and lashing with the 

 expiring fury of a subsiding sea, and some distance off 

 a turn of the land, rested a conclave of solemn shags ; 

 but it was not until they were well upon the wing, and 

 too far off, that I perceived an eider duck amongst 



