THE GUILLEMOT. 
157 
to give way. One of the climbers, while he was 
imparting to me instructions how to act, grinned 
purposely, and showed his upper jaw. I learned by 
his story, that, last year, a falling stone had driven 
two of his front teeth down his throat ; while the 
poor climber, with all his dexterity, was unable to 
fend off the blow. 
As I was lowered down, the grandeur and sub- 
limity of the scene beggared all description, and 
amply repaid any little unpleasant sensations which 
arose on the score of danger. The sea was roaring 
at the base of this stupendous wall of rocks ; thou- 
sands and tens of thousands of wildfowl were in an 
instant on the wing : the kittiwakes and jackdaws 
rose in circling flight ; while most of the guillemots, 
razorbills, and puffins, left the ledges of the rocks^ 
in a straight and downward line, with a peculiarly 
quick motion of the pinions, till they plunged into 
the ocean. It was easy to distinguish the puffins 
from the razorbills in their descent : these, presented 
a back of a uniformly dark colour : those, had a 
faint white diagonal line running ecross the wings. 
The nests of the kittiwakes were close to each other, 
on every part of the rocks which was capable of 
iiolding them; and they were so numerous, as 
totally to defy any attempt to count them. On the 
bare and level ledge of the rocks, often not more 
than six inches wide, lay the eggs of the guillemots : 
some were placed parallel with the range of the 
shelf, others nearly so, and others with their blunt 
and sharp ends indiscriminately pointing to the sea. 
By no glutinous matter, nor any foreign body what- 
ever, were they affixed to the rock : bare they lay, 
