114 RAZOR-BILLED AUK. 



may never see again ; the noblest fleet that ever ploughed the ocean might 

 anchor in it in safety. To augment our pleasures, our captain some days 

 after piloted the Gulnare into it. But, you will say, " Where are the 

 Auks, we have lost sight of them entirely."" Never fear, good reader, we 

 are in a delightful harbour, and anon you shall hear of them. 



Winding up the basin toward the north-east, Captain Emery, myself, 

 and some sailors, all well armed, proceeded one day along the high and 

 precipitous shores to the distance of about four miles, and at last reached 

 the desired spot. We landed on a small rugged island. Our men were 

 provided with long poles, having hooks at their extremities. These sticks 

 were introduced into the deep and narrow fissures, from which we care- 

 fully drew the birds and eggs. One place, in particular, was full of birds ; 

 it was a horizontal fissure, about two feet in height, and thirty or forty 

 yards in depth. We crawled slowly into it, and as the birds affrighted 

 flew hurriedly past us by hundreds, many of their eggs were smashed. 

 The farther we advanced, the more dismal did the cries of the birds sound 

 in our ears. Many of them, despairing of efi'ecting their escape, crept 

 into the surrounding recesses. Having collected as many of them and 

 their eggs as we could, we returned, and glad were we once more to 

 breathe the fresh air. No sooner were we out than the cracks of the 

 sailors' guns echoed among the rocks. Rare fun to the tars, in fact, was 

 every such trip, and, when we joined them, they had a pile of Auks on 

 the rocks near them. The birds flew directly towards the muzzles of the 

 guns, as readily as in any other course, and therefore it needed little 

 dexterity to shoot them. 



When the Auks deposit their eggs along with the Guillemots, which 

 they sometimes do, they drop them in spots from which the water can 

 escape without injuring them ; but when they breed in deep fissures, 

 which is more frequently the case, many of them lie close together, 

 and the eggs are deposited on small beds of pebbles or broken stones 

 raised a couple of inches or more, to let the water pass beneath them. 

 Call this instinct if you will : — T really do not much care ; but you must 

 permit me to admire the wonderful arrangements of that Nature from 

 which they have received so much useful knowledge. When they lay 

 their eggs in such a horizontal cavern as that which I have mentioned 

 above, you find them scattered at the distance of a few inches from each 

 other ; and there, as well as in the fissures, they sit flat upon them like 

 Ducks, for example, whereas on an exposed rock, each bird stands almost 



