EPISODES 407 



thing; her sails are patched with stolen pieces of better 

 canvas, the owners of which have probably been stranded 

 on some inhospitable coast, and have been plundered, 

 perhaps murdered, by the wretches before us. Look at 

 her again ! Her sides are neither painted, nor even 

 pitched ; no, they are daubed over, plastered and patched 

 with strips of Seal-skins laid along the seams. Her deck 

 has never been washed or sanded ; her hold — for no cabin 

 has she — though at present empty, sends forth an odor 

 pestilential as that of a charnel house. The crew, eight 

 in number, lie sleeping at the foot of their tottering 

 mast, regardless of the repairs needed in every part of 

 her rigging. But see ! she scuds along, and as I suspect 

 her crew to be bent on the commission of some evil deed, 

 let us follow her to the first harbor. 



There rides the filthy thing! The afternoon is half 

 over. Her crew have thrown their boat overboard, they 

 enter and seat themselves, each with a rusty gun. One 

 of them sculls the skiff towards an island for a century 

 past the breeding-place of myriads of Guillemots, which 

 are now to be laid under contribution. At the approach 

 of the vile thieves, clouds of birds rise from the rock and 

 fill the air around, wheeling and screaming over their 

 enemies. Yet thousands remain in an erect posture, each 

 covering its single egg, the hope of both parents. The 

 reports of several muskets loaded with heavy shot are 

 now heard, while several dead and wounded birds fall 

 heavily on the rock, or into the water. Instantly all the 

 sitting birds rise and fly off affrighted to their compan- 

 ions above, and hover in dismay over their assassins, who 

 walk forward exultingly, and with their shouts mingling 

 oaths and execrations. Look at them! See how they 

 crush the chick within its shell, how they trample on 

 every egg in their way with their huge and clumsy boots. 

 Onward they go, and when they leave the isle, not an 

 egg that they can find is left entire. The dead birds they 



