286 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



of April, both should be in their prime. " Sweet bodements ! 

 good ! " — and, striking out the comfort, they were realized. All, 

 at any rate, that there was to see, I think I saw, but under such 

 conditions of cold, wind, water, and sand in my eyes, that I am 

 glad now to think it is over. The first and second of these draw- 

 backs (to which I now add cramp) were almost constant, the 

 third came in after rain, when the excavation in which I sat 

 had to be baled out, in the first place, and then again, at 

 intervals, as it slowly refilled, and the last asserted itself when- 

 ever the wind was from the east, and blew straight through the 

 opening. On such occasions I wished I had made the latter face 

 otherwise so as to get a milder quality, at least, of blasts that 

 were almost perpetual ; but this could only have been done by 

 placing my observatory somewhere else, and was not now to be 

 thought of. For the cold, it was most severe precisely at the 

 times when most was to be seen — the early morning, namely, 

 and the latter part of the afternoon — nor could the sun ever 

 reach the cheerless vault in which I sat. True, I could only 

 manage to roof it about a quarter over, which I did by laying 

 turfs on a few sticks and spars that I was able to find, only one 

 of which would bridge the chasm — a feat I was proud of every 

 time that I looked at it. My other arrangements, however, 

 effectually excluded the light, and were as follows — the very soul 

 of the business : over the loop-hole I fixed, by means of sharpened 

 sticks, driven into the turf, a piece of sacking, and in this cut a 

 square hole so as to leave a flap that might be raised or lowered 

 at pleasure. When I came to watch, I first fastened my plaid, 

 with safety-pins, to the upper part and sides of the sacking, and 

 then, putting it over my head, let it fall down all about me, so 

 that when I raised the flap — which I always left lowered — I 

 looked out from a veritable camera obscura. Not even an Eagle, 

 as I suppose, could have seen me under these conditions, but as 

 long as the light shone through the aperture, the Kuffs, as I had 

 found last year, were quick to detect any movement behind it. 

 This watch-house of mine came, in time, to be talked of in the 

 neighbourhood, and when I considered the many turfs of which 

 it was made — most of which' I had had to cut myself — and gazed 

 on the huge pit or tank from which they, and the sand also used 

 in its construction, had been taken, I sometimes almost wondered 



