A RECENT VISIT TO THE PARNE ISLANDS. 297 



strike, disappear, and in a minute rise again, with all the buoyancy 

 of bladders, to the surface. 



We could well have watched the mingled flight of Gannets 

 and Terns for hours against the soft blue of a summer sky, but 

 are now close in shore, and running towards the landing place at 

 the foot of the Longstone Light. There are yet some fathoms of 

 water under the keel, and, as we look over the gunwale, we find 

 ourselves gazing down through the tops of a submarine forest. 

 The broad leather-like and olive-green straps and tangled air- 

 bladders of Fuel slip noiselessly under the counter, lower down 

 are anchored masses of pale green Ulvce and lovely transparent 

 fronds of purple or pink lavers, gently swaying in the tremulous 

 crystal ; lowest of all, on the hard white sands, starfish display 

 their coral-like fingers ; amongst them we see the brilliant 

 Solaster papposa, like a purple disc fringed with coral knobs. 



The Longstone, now we are landed, is a long, low, ugly reef, 

 covered with black seaweeds, barren and desolate, with scarce 

 a trace of any land-plant. In northerly or easterly gales it is 

 often all but submerged ; nothing save the red-painted and 

 strongly protected lighthouse and attendant buildings are seen, 

 from the castle terrace at Bamborough, standing out clear and 

 defined against an ever-shifting cloud of snow-white spray. In 

 one stormy winter Cuthbertson had to wait for thirteen weeks 

 before he was able to communicate and carry stores to the light- 

 keepers. To-day all is calm, fair, and lovely, the sea peaceful as 

 a sleeping giant, gently heaving, with glimmering sheets and 

 shifting breadths of lavender over the rocky and stony ground, 

 but emerald-green (which is the true colour of the North Sea 

 water) where the white sands reflect the light from above. 



To leeward of the reef a party of Eiders are swimming, chiefly 

 drakes ; some also stand on the rock slope at the tide edge. The 

 duck, in her Quaker garb of quiet shading — reddish brown and 

 black — is not easily seen when on bare rock, but the drake is 

 always conspicuous when in his handsome and very distinctly 

 defined plumage of brown, black, and white, suffused with rich 

 buff, and relieved by the pale green patches on the nape. Eiders 

 have nested on the Fames for centuries, and are locally known as 

 St. Cuthbert's Duck, from the protection given them by the saint. 

 The nests, which are numerous on some of the islands, are often 

 in very open situations ; on the Noxes we found five within a 



ZOOLOGIST. — AUGUST, 1892. 2 A 



