69 



bail it out, and not relishing the prospect of continuous bailing, 

 we were about to put back, when fortunately another craft, 

 homeward bound with a cargo of lobsters, bore down upon us. 

 The crew readily consented to an exchange of boats, and we 

 made the transfer quickly. 



We resumed our journey then, and all went well for a couple 

 of hours, until the wind, which had been gradually growing 

 lighter, died away altogether, and there we lay rocking on the 

 swell, while the sail flapped and banged from side to side. 

 There was nothing for it but to get out the long, heavy sweeps, 

 and for five weary hours we rowed that unwieldy craft, Wilcox 

 and I taking half-hour spells in the bow, and Prest manning the 

 stern oar. At the beginning of our long pull we could j ust discern 

 the rock as a little blue cloud on the horizon, and it seemed as 

 though our progress were so slow that we would never reach it ; 

 but finally about five o'clock in the afternoon we began to see 

 Gannets, Kittiwakes, and an occasional Murre or Puffin, and 

 approached near enough to fully appreciate that wonderful 

 bird home. 



The rock is a great crag, rising sheer out of the ocean to 

 a height, it is said, of one hundred and forty feet. Its flat 

 top is about three and a half acres in extent. The sides are all 

 precipitous, and on the south absolutely unclimbable. At its 

 base it seems to be of a basaltic composition, while from half 

 way up to the top it is composed of sandstone. Running around 

 the sides of the rock are ledges and shelves on which the birds 

 nest; most of them are horizontal or nearly so, rising one above 

 the other at intervals of every few yards. Near the top the 

 action of frost and storm has worn away the soft stone into the 

 most fantastic shapes, forming innumerable cracks, crannies, 

 and crevices. The rock is continually surrounded with a cloud 

 of wheeUng and circHng birds, and so closely are the ledges 

 packed with birds that from a distance they look as white as if 

 covered with snow. Half a mile or so from the main rock is a 

 smaller one, called North Bird Rock. This, hke the big rock, 

 rises straight from the water. It is only forty feet high, but its 

 flat top is covered with nesting Gannets, which give it the 

 appearance, from the big rock, of a snow field. 



