in the Summer of IS2S, - 825- 



sembling a cone split or divided from its very summit to the 

 sea ; and, as viewed from the sea in a boat, strikes the imagin- 

 ation as the brickwork of a gigantic fortress, being in itself 

 perfectly rnural, with scarcely ^ broken chasm or rent observ- 

 able, so regular and so beautiful is this bulwark of nature ; 

 the strata of which are uniformly of a reddish cast. This face 

 is estimated to be about 1 500 ft. above the level of the sea, 

 and is resorted to by innumerable hosts of aquatic birds, the 

 kittiwake (Z^arus Rissa L.) and guillemot (Cblymbus Troille'L.) 

 occupying the lowest part; above them, the herring gull 

 (Z^arus fuscus L.) and a few of the black-backed gull (Z^arus 

 marinus L.) ; and, higher still, the Mank's puffin (Procellaria 

 Puffinus L.), stormy petrel (Procellaria pelagica i.), and 

 common puffin (A'lca arctica L.) ; the whole forming a scene 

 truly delightful to the eye of the ornithologist. 



As the stormy petrel is scarcely ever to be seen near the 

 land, except in very boisterous weather, one of the natives, 

 for a trifling remuneration, agreed to traverse the face of this 

 rock, and take me some from out its fissures. Accordingly, 

 accoutred with a rope of hemp and hogs' bristles, coiled over 

 his shoulders, he proceeded to the cliffy having made one end 

 fast by means of a stake, he threw the coil over the face of the 

 rock, and gradually lowered himself down, but with the ut- 

 most caution and circumspection, carefully pressing his foot 

 hard upon the narrow ridges before he at all loosened his firm 

 grasp of the rope, which he never altogether abandoned. I 

 had previously thrown myself upon my chest, to enable me to 

 have a better view of him, by looking over the cliff; and, cer- 

 tainly, to see the dexterity and bravery with which he threw 

 himself from one aperture to another was truly grand. The 

 tumbling roar of the Atlantic was foaming many hundreds of 

 feet beneath, and dashing its curling cream-like surge against 

 the dark base of the cliff, in sheets of the most beautiful 

 white ; while the herring and black-backed gulls, alternately 

 sweeping past him so as to be almost in reach of his arm, 

 threw a wildness into the scene by the discordant scream of 

 the former, and the laughing oft-repeated bark of the latter. 

 This, however, he appeared entirely to disregard ; and, con- 

 tinuing his search, returned in about half an hour with seven 

 or eight of the stormy petrel, tied up in an old stocking ; and 

 a pair of the Manks puffins, together with their eggs. The 

 birds, he told me, he had no difficulty in capturing. The 

 eggs of the stormy petrel are surprisingly large, considering 

 the diminutive size of the bird, being as large as those of the 

 thrush. The female lays two eggs, of a dirty or dingy white, 

 encircled at the larger end by a ring of fine rust-coloured 



