SHORES OF THE CLYDE AND FIRTH. 
133 
wilderness of stones. At one period of its existence the 
perpendicular cliffs of the whole rock were entirely sur- 
rounded by the se3/j as they still are at some places during 
high tide, nevertheless the visitor, with much trouble and 
caution, can travel round the entire shore, which is about 
two and a quarter miles in circumference. 
Taking our course down the eastern shore, we are saved 
the laborious trouble of picking our way over the wilderness 
of sharp-pointed stones by taking the little cindered path, 
made smooth by the lighthouse folks, as far as the south 
foghorn. Passing along the base of the beetling crags, 
we come upon occasional small colonies of birds nestling 
and flitting among the rocks above; but when we come to 
where the foghorn is placed, we are brought to a stand in 
wonderment and awe at the sight of the great towering 
crags before us, and the huge masses of fallen rock that 
overhang the sea, where, as thick as they are able to stand 
on the smooth crowns of these great rocks, are myriads of 
antic-looking puffins, sitting bolt up, and looking at us as 
eomical like as little clowns, and seemingly quite unmindful 
of our presence. Below, sitting on the rocks and stones, 
and paddling about in the sea, are immense flocks of white- 
breasted gulls — young and old, great and small. A stone 
thrown in the water amongst them sends them into the air, 
accompanied with the puffins — a thick cloud of fluttering, 
screaming things, hiding, for an instant, the very sun before 
us. At the base of the cliffs, along the stony path, up and 
down, we still pursue our way, until we arrive at what is 
called the Main Craigs ; and here the great hatchery 
of the eastern side is reached. "What a fearful place!" 
is our silent ejaculation : giddy precipices of perpendicular 
wall; square, massive, towering pillars, rising hundreds of 
feet, up, and up, and up; deep rents and chasms, projecting 
