CASTLES BY THE SEA 65 



castled forelands nor held me so long but for the 

 birds that haunted them, seeing that this visible world 

 is to me but a sad and empty place without wonder- 

 ful life and the varied forms of life, which are in har- 

 mony with it, and give it a meaning, and a grace and 

 beauty and splendour not its own. If there be no 

 visible wild life, then I am like that wandering being 

 or spirit in Montgomery's Pelican Island, who was 

 alone on the earth before life was, and had no know- 

 ledge or intimation of any intelligence but its own ; 

 who roamed over the seas that tumbled round the 

 globe for thousands and thousands of years, flying 

 ever from its own loneliness and vainly seeking 

 comfort and happiness in loving and being the 

 companion of wind and cloud and wave, and day 

 and night, and sun and moon and stars, and all 

 inanimate things. 



Sitting on a rock on the edge of one of these head- 

 lands I could watch those glorious fishers in the sea, 

 the gannets, by the hour ; but this bird is so great, 

 being now the greatest left to us in Cornwall, or 

 rather in the seas that wash its shores, and its habits 

 so interesting, that I must by and by devote an en- 

 tire chapter to it. Gulls and daws were the common 

 species, always to be seen floating and wheeling about 

 the promontory, a black and white company, with 

 sharp yelping voices and hoarse and laughter-like 

 cries ; never wholly free from anxiety when I was by, 

 never fully convinced of my peaceful intentions. 

 Their habits are well known : I was not expecting any 

 new discovery about them, it was simply the delight 



