204 
COMMON' GARNET. 
in view ; the waves run high, and all around looks dismal. See what exer- 
tions the rowers make ; it blows a hurricane, and each successive billow 
seems destined to overwhelm their fragile bark. My anxiety is intense, as 
you may imagine ; in the midst of my friends and the crew I watch every 
movement of the boat, now balanced on the very crest of a rolling and 
foaming wave, now sunk far into the deep trough. We see how eagerly 
yet calmly they pull. My son stands erect, steering with a long oar, and 
Lincoln is bailing the water which is gaining on him, for the spray ever 
and anon dashes over the bow. But they draw near, a rope is thrown and 
caught, the whale-boat is hauled close under our lee-board ; in a moment 
more all are safe on deck, the helm round, the schooner to, and away under 
bare poles she scuds toward. Labrador. 
Thomas Lincoln and my son were much exhausted, and the sailors 
required a double allowance of grog. A quantity of eggs of various kinds, 
and several birds, had been procured, for wherever sufficient room for a 
Gannet’s nest was not afforded on the rock, one or two Guillemots occupied 
the spot, and on the ledges below, the Kittiwakes lay thick like snow-flakes. 
The discharging of their guns produced no other effect than to cause the 
birds killed or severely wounded to fall into the water, for the cries of the 
countless multitudes drowned every other noise. The party had their 
clothes smeared with the nauseous excrements of hundreds of Gannets and 
other birds, which in shooting off from their nests caused numerous eggs to 
fall, of which some were procured entire. The confusion on and around the 
rock was represented as baffling all description ; and as we gazed on the 
mass now gradually fading on our sight, we all judged it well worth the 
while to cross the ocean to see such a sight. But yet it was in some mea- 
sure a painful sight to me, for I had not been able to land on this great 
breeding-place, of which, however, I here present a description given by our 
pilot Mr. Godwin. 
“ The top of the main rock is a quarter of a mile wide, from north to 
south, but narrower in the other direction. Its elevation is estimated at 
about four hundred feet. It stands in lat. 47° 52'. The surf beats its base 
with great violence, unless after a long calm, and it is extremely difficult to 
land upon it, and still more so to ascend to the top or platform. The only 
point on which a boat may be landed lies on the south side, and the moment 
the boat strikes it must be hauled dry on the rocks. The whole surface of the 
upper platform is closely covered with nests, placed about two feet asunder, 
and in such regular order that a person may see between the lines, which 
run north and south, as if looking along the furrows of a deeply ploughed 
field. The Labrador fishermen and others who annually visit this extraordi- 
nary resort of the Gannets, for the purpose of procuring their flesh to bait 
