Letters, Extracts, Notices, ^c. 167 
The island slopes steeply to the water at the northern end, 
but on the other faces is clii3Py, particularly at the south. It 
is composed o£ rough sandstone, bits of which treacherously 
break off in the hand ; but on the whole, if you wear india- 
rubber-soled shoes, the climbing is good. Vegetation is scarce, 
a few rock-plants and wild asparagus being all that I saw. 
The southern end of the island is split from the main portion 
by a deep crevice ; but we managed to scramble up the face 
of it, and shortly afterwards I heard a shout from Stenhouse 
announcing that he had found eggs : and, on joining him, 
sure enough, in a little sandy-floored cavern, some 25 feet 
down the face of the cliff, lay three eggs. I was so pleased 
that I did not wait to put myself in the sling, but threw the 
rope over and, with the Doctor and my coxswain Muckle 
holding on above seated with their feet against a rock, down 
I went, hand over hand, and was soon in the cavern. Two 
eggs were lying side by side, and a third some two or three 
feet away. There was absolutely no attempt at a nest, or 
even a hollow : the eggs lay on the bare dry sand. I soon 
had them in my handkerchief, and holding this in my mouth, 
made a bowline in the end of the two-inch manilla, and in a 
minute or two was at the top exulting. 
After a few moments^ gloating we proceeded with our 
search, and fifty yards further on my coxswain saw some more 
eggs, this time not more than 12 feet down the cliff. More 
cautious this time, I got into the canvas sling, of which 
Col. Willoughby Verner had given me the pattern, and was 
soon over the edge and in possession of the clutch of three, 
again curiously arranged, two of the eggs being together, 
the third being some two feet away. This clutch was 
handsomer than the other and more boldly blotched. 
We now thought that we had done well, and seeing 
nothing more retired across the crevice with the intention of 
returning to the boat and going after Blue Rock-Pigeons, 
of which there were a good many on the island and yet more 
on the cliffy coast of the mainland. Taking one more look 
with the binoculars at the face of the cliff we had left, the 
Doctor declared he saw an egg ; further looking revealed 
