Birds. 7743 



strata of which are very regular and nearly horizontal, clipping very 

 slightly to the S.W. The North Bird is much the smaller, and though 

 the base is more accessible, the summit cannot, 1 believe, be reached, 

 at least I was unable to do so ; it is the most irregular in its outline, 

 presenting many enormous detached fragments, and is divided in one 

 place into two separate islands at high water ; the northerly one 

 several times higher than broad, so as to present the appearance of a 

 huge rocky pillar. Gannet Rock is a quarter of a mile in its longest 

 diameter from S.W. to N.E. The highest point of the rock is at the 

 northerly end, where, according to the chart, it is 140 feet high, and 

 from which it gradually slopes to the southerly end, where it is from 

 80 to 100 feet. 



The sides are nearly vertical, the summit in many places over- 

 hanging. There are two beaches at its base on the southerly and 

 westerly sides, the most westerly one comparatively smooth and com- 

 posed of rounded stones. The easterly one, on the contrary, is very 

 rough and covered by irregular blocks, many of large size and slill 

 angular, showing that they have but recently fallen from the cliffs 

 above. This beach is very difficult to land on, but the other presents 

 no great difficulty in ordinary weather ; the top of the rock cannot, 

 however, be reached from either of them. The only spot from which 

 at present the ascent can be made is the rocky point between the two 

 beaches ; this has, probably from the yielding nature of the rock, 

 altered materially since Audubon's visit; at present it would be im- 

 possible to haul a boat up from want of space. The landing is very 

 difficult at all times, as it is necessary to jump from a boat, thrown 

 about by the surf, on to the inclined surface of the ledge, rendered 

 slippery by the Fuci which cover it, and bounded towards the rock by 

 a nearly vertical face. The landing once effected, the first part of the 

 ascent is comparatively easy, being over large fragments and broad 

 ledges, but the upper part is both difficult and dangerous, as in some 

 places the face of the rock is vertical for eight or ten feet and the pro- 

 jecting ledges very narrow, and the rock itself so soft that it cannot 

 be trusted to, and in addition rendered slippery by the constant 

 trickling from above, and the excrements of the birds that cover it in 

 every direction. 



Since Audubon's time the fishery, which was carried on extensively 

 in the neighbourhood of Bryon Island, has failed, or at least is less 

 productive than on the north shore, and I am inclined to think that 

 at present the birds are but httle disturbed, and that consequently 

 their number, particularly of the guillemots, has much increased. 



