3i8 Life of Auduhon. 



probably been stranded on some inhospitable coast, and 

 have been plundered, perhaps murdered, by the wretches 

 before us. Look at her again. Her sides are neither 

 painted nor even pitched ; no, they are daubed over, 

 plastered and patched with stripes of seal-skins, laid 

 along the seams. Her deck has never been washed or 

 sanded, her hold, for she has no cabin, though at present 

 empty, sends forth an odor pestilential as that of a char- 

 nel-house. The crew, eight in number, lie sleeping at 

 the foot of their tottering mast, regardless of the repairs 

 needed in every part of her rigging. But see ! she scuds 

 along, and, as I suspect her crew to be bent on the com- 

 mission of some evil deed, let us follow her to the first 

 harbor. There rides the filthy thing ! The afternoon is 

 half over. Her crew have thrown their boat overboard ; 

 they enter and seat themselves, one with a rusty gun. 

 One of them sculls the skiff towards an island, for a cen- 

 tury past the breeding-place of myriads of guillemots, 

 which are now to be laid under contribution. At the ap- 

 proach of the vile thieves, clouds of birds rise from the 

 rock and fill the air around, wheeling and screaming 

 over their enemies ; yet thousands remain in an erect 

 posture, each covering its single egg, the hope of both 

 parents. The reports of several muskets loaded with 

 heavy shot are now heard, while several dead and wound- 

 ed birds fall heavily on the rock or into the water. In- 

 stantly all the sitting birds rise and fly off affrighted to 

 their companions above, and hover in dismay over their 

 assassins, who walk forward exultingly, and with their 

 shouts mingling oaths and execrations. Look at them ! 

 See how they crush the chick within its shell ! how they 

 trample on every egg in their way with their huge and 

 clumsy boots ! Onwards they go, and when they leave 

 the isle not an egg that they can find is left entire. The 

 dead birds they collect and carry to their boat. Now 



