INTRODUCTION. 
5 7 
in tlie middle distance some bare posts set up as a 
land-mark, or the timbers of some ill-fated vessel 
rising above the quicksand, there reigns, on the con- 
trary, a solitude of another kind ; it is now broken 
only by the distant roll of the surf, by the shrill pipe of 
the ring-dotterel, or the glance of its flight as it rises 
noiselessly ; a solitary gull or tern that has lagged 
from the flock may sail along, uttering as it were an 
unwilling inward sound as it passes the intruder ; 
everything is calm and still, the sensation increased 
by the hot glimmer that spreads along the sands ; 
there is no voice, there is no animal life. During 
winter, the scene may at first sight appear nearly 
similar ; the warm and flickering haze is changed 
for a light that can bo seen into ; the noise of the 
surge comes deeper through the clear air of frost, and 
with it at intervals hoarse sounds and shrill whistles 
to which the ear is unaccustomed ; acres of dark 
masses are seen, which may be taken for low rocks 
or scalps, and the lino of the sea in the bays contains 
something which rises and falls, and seems as if it 
were about to be cast on shore with every coming 
swell. To the old sportsman all theso signs are fami- 
liar, and he knows their moaning; but to one who 
has for the first time trodden these flat coasts, some 
distant shot or other alarm first explains every- 
thing. The line of the coast is now one dark mov- 
ing mass ; the air seems alive with water-fowl, and 
is filled with sounds that rise and fall, and vary as 
the troops wheel around, and this continues until 
they have again settled to their rest; as dusk 
