ATIKS' NESTS. 145 
that these talus and debris are impressive. They tell 
of changes which have begun and been going on since 
the existence of the earth in its present state by the 
friction of time against its surface ; and they carry us 
on with solemn force to the period when the dehiscent 
edges and mountain ravines of this same earth shall 
have been worn down into rounded hill and gentle val- 
ley. Well may they be called "geological chronome- 
ters."^ They point with impressive finger to the ro- 
tation of years. The dial-plate and the index are both 
there, and human wisdom almost deciphers the nota- 
tion ! 
On the steeper flanks of these rocky cones the little 
Auks had built their liests. The season of incubation, 
though far advanced, had not gone by, for the young 
fledglings were looking down upon me in thousands ; 
and the mothers, with crops full of provender, were 
constantly arriving from the sea. Urged by a wish to 
study the domestic habits of these little Arctic emi- 
grants at their homestead, I foolishly clambered up to 
one of their most popular colonies, without thinking 
of my descent. 
The angle of deposit was already very great, not 
much less than 50°; and as I moved on, with a walk- 
ing-pole substituted for my gun, I was not surprised to 
find the fragments receding under my feet, and rolling, 
with a resounding crash, to the plain below. Stop- 
ping, however, to regain my breath, I found that above, 
beneath, around me, every thing was in motion. The 
entire surface seemed to be sliding down. Ridiculous 
as it may seem to dwell upon a matter apparently so 
trivial, my position became one of danger. The accel- 
erated velocity of the masses caused them to leap off 
* Mantell's " Wonders of Geology." 
K 
