DECEMBER BY LAND AND SEA 17 



As the few wisps of clouds in the west- 

 ern sky were tinged with pink, winter gull 

 after winter gull appeared out of the blood- 

 red afterglow and floated out over the 

 waters of the bay. The sky line in the 

 east was a vivid purplish hue, while above 

 it, glowed the reflected exquisite pink of 

 the higher western heavens. 



On the eleventh I took the beach road 

 out of the then deserted and quiet town 

 of Newport. There were no bathers ex- 

 cept a few coot and an old loon that 

 floated just outside the surf I fol- 

 lowed the edge of the shale around 

 Easton's Point. A dozen or more coast- 

 ing schooners were scudding to the south- 

 ward under a fresh nor' west breeze. A 

 square-rigger was hull down far off 

 Cormorant Rock and West Island Light 

 loomed up beyond Sachuest Point. A 

 few red-necked and horned grebes were 

 swimming about the rocks and two red- 

 breasted mergansers flew out to sea. A 

 few " beds " of coot lay off shore a mile 

 or so. The ocean looked just as it does 

 in summer save for the absence of sand- 

 pipers — for not even a purple was to be 

 seen — and for the presence of the grebes 



