86 THE LAND'S END 



with his mate, following the trend of the coast, each 

 bird in turn now above the sea, now down in the 

 shelter of a big incoming wave, and every curve and 

 every rise and fall of one so exactly repeated by the 

 other as to give the idea of a bird and its shadow or 

 reflection, with bird and reflection continually chang- 

 ing places. 



After seeing the gannet every day for months one 

 would be apt to think that this species is incapable of 

 making a mistake and is beyond reach of accidents, 

 but that cannot be supposed of any living creature, 

 however perfect the correspondence may appear 

 between it and the environment. At Sennen I heard 

 of an extraordinary mishap which befell and caused 

 the destruction of a large number of gannets. It 

 was told to me by several of the fishermen who wit- 

 nessed it at Sennen Cove, at the Land's End, and by 

 a gentleman of the place, who is a keen ornithologist 

 and was present at the time. A strong wind was 

 blowing straight into the bay, and there was a very 

 big sea on. The sea, they told me, presented a sin- 

 gular appearance on account of the enormous waves 

 rolling in ; the village people, in fact, were all out 

 watching it. A large number of gannets were busy 

 fishing and were coming further and further in, fol- 

 lowing the shoal. Then a wonderful thing hap- 

 pened on this day of wonders ; the wind which had 

 been blowing a gale fell quite suddenly and was suc- 

 ceeded in a very few minutes by a perfect calm. 

 Some of the men assured me they had never known 

 such a thing happen before. I have known it once, 



