GOLDEN EAGLE. 
9 
nest. This was high up the face of a precipice, the only 
access to which was through a deep and rugged gully 
on the right. We succeeded, after a most toilsome 
scramble, in reaching a sloping ledge of rocks, which we 
supposed must be above the nest. We had laid down 
our guns, that we might hold on by the scanty tufts of 
grass which grew from the crevices of the rock, when 
the eagle rose within gunshot of our position, discovering 
to us its nest, a young one, and an unhatclied egg. The 
nest was placed in a hollow of the rock, and was com¬ 
posed of a large mass of sticks, and appeared to be 
thickly lined with soft materials. Between us and it 
intervened a large cubic mass of rock, so steep on its 
sides as to prevent the chance of our reaching the nest 
without the help of ropes. It went sadly against our 
inclination to retreat; it wanted, however, but a few 
hours of the time when we must commence our home¬ 
ward voyage. 
In Norway, where they enjoy an uninterrupted sway, 
and can choose their nesting-places undisturbed amongst 
those magnificent rocks which bound its glorious fiords, 
we saw them often perched upon the centre of some 
lonely island, where they would remain seated motion¬ 
less for hours together. At midnight, whilst tranquilly 
gliding over those calm inland seas, we have sometimes 
disturbed one when thus seated. Its motion is then 
slow, heavy, and like a Heron, till, rising high in air, it 
assumes its own majestic flight. 
Upon the pinnacle of a steep and rocky island, to 
which we had climbed to watch the midnight sun, we 
found that we had seated ourselves upon the oft-fre¬ 
quented resting-place of the Golden Eagle. The rock was 
strewed with feathers and the remains of many a meal. 
Birds of the same species, with one or two exceptions, 
