56 FROM NORTH POLE TO EQUATOR. 



the berg there flew swarms innumerable. The dozens became hun- 

 dreds, the hundreds became thousands, and hundreds of thousands 

 sprang incessantly from the brown-green turf. A cloud not less 

 thick than that over the holm enveloped us, enveloped the island, so 

 that it — magically indeed, but in a way perceptible by the senses — 

 seemed transformed into a gigantic bee-hive, round which not less 

 gigantic bees, humming and buzzing, hovered and fluttered. 



The farther we went, the more magniflcent became the spectacle. 

 The whole hill was alive. Hundreds of thousands of eyes looked 

 down upon us intruders. From every hole and corner, from every 

 peak and ledge, out of every cleft, burrow, or opening, they hurried 

 forth, right, left, above, beneath; the air, like the ground, teemed 

 with birds. From the sides and from the summit of the berg 

 thousands threw themselves like a continuous cataract into the sea 

 in a throng so dense that they seemed to the eye to form an almost 

 solid mass. Thousands came, thousands went, thousands fluttered 

 in a wondrous mazy dance; hundreds of thousands flew, hundreds 

 of thousands swam and dived, and yet other hundreds of thousands 

 awaited the footsteps which should rouse them also. There was 

 such a swarming, whirring, rustling, dancing, flying, and creeping 

 all about us that we almost lost our senses; the eye refused duty, 

 and his wonted skill failed even the marksman who attempted to 

 gain a prize at random among the thousands. Bewildered, hardly 

 conscious, we pushed on our way until at length we reached the 

 summit. Our expectation here at last to regain quietness, com- 

 posure, and power of observation, was not at once realized. Even 

 here there was the same swarming and whirring as further down 

 the slope, and the cloud of birds around us was so thick that we 

 only saw the sea dimly and indefinitely as in twilight. But a pair 

 of jerfalcons, who had their eyrie in a neighbouring precipice, and 

 had seen the unusual bustle, suddenly changed the wonderful 

 scene. The razor-bills, guillemots, and puffins were not afraid of us; 

 but on the appearance of their well-known and irresistible enemies, 

 the whole cloud threw themselves with one accord, as at the com- 

 mand of a magician, into the sea, and the outlook was clear and 

 free. Innumerable black points, the heads of the birds swimming 



