CQMMON GANNBET. 223 
and my son. I remained on board the Ripley, and commenced my 
distant observations, which I shall relate in due time. 
An hour has elapsed; the boat, which had been hid from our 
sight, is now in view ; the waves run high, and all around looks dis- 
mal. See what exertions the rowers make ; it blows a hurricane, and 
each successive billow seems destined to overwhelm their fragile bark. 
My anxiety is intense, as you may imagine; in the midst of my friends 
and the crew I watch every movement of the boat, now balanced on the 
very crest of a rolling and foaming wave, now sunk far into the deep 
trough. We see how eagerly yet calmly they pull. My son stands 
erect, steering with a long oar, and Lincotn is bailing the water 
which is gaining on him, for the spray ever and anon dashes over the bow. 
But they draw near, a rope is-thrown and caught, the whale-boat is 
hauled close under our lee-board; in a moment more all are safe on 
deck, the helm round, the schooner to, and away under bare poles she 
scuds toward Labrador. 
Tuomas Lincoxn and my son were much exhausted, and the sailors 
required a double allowance of grog. A quantity of eggs of various 
kinds, and several birds, had been procured, for wherever sufficient 
room for a gannet’s nest was not afforded on the rock, one or two Guil- 
lemots occupied the spot, and on the ledges below the Kittiwakes lay 
thick like snow-flakes. The discharging of their guns produced no other 
effect than to cause the birds killed or severely wounded to fall into 
the water, for the cries of the countless multitudes drowned every other 
noise. The party had their clothes smeared with the nauseous excre- 
ments of hundreds of gannets and other birds, which in shooting off 
from their nests caused numerous eggs to fall, of which some were pro- 
cured entire. The confusion on and around the rock was represented 
as battling all description ; and as we gazed on the mass now gradually 
fading on our sight, we all judged it well worth the while to cross the 
ocean to see such a sight. But yet it was in some measure a painful 
sight to me, for I had not been able to land on this great breeding- 
place, of which, however, I here present a description given by our 
pilot Mr Gopwin. ; 
“‘ The top of the main rock is a quarter of a mile wide, from north 
to south, but narrower in the other direction. Its elevation is esti- 
mated at about four hundred feet. It stands in Lat. 47° 52’. The 
surf beats its base with great violence, unless after a long calm, and it 
is extremely difficult to land upon it, and still more so to ascend to the 
