as calm as a lake. There was
hardly so much as a ripple, and so clear was it underneath, I could see
the fishes at play down to a depth of several fathoms.

The bed of the sea in our bay is of pure sand of a silvery whiteness;
and the smallest objects, even little crabs not so big as a crown-piece,
could be distinctly seen gambolling along the bottom, in playful pursuit
of one another, or in search of some creatures still smaller than
themselves, of which they designed to make their breakfast. I could see
"schools" of small herring fry and broad round plaice, and huge turbots,
and beautiful green mackerel, and great conger eels as large as
boa-constrictors, all engaged in pursuits of pleasure or prey.

It was one of those mornings when the sea is perfectly still, and such
as are very rare upon our coasts. It was just the morning for me, for,
as I have already said, I had designed a "grand excursion" for the day,
and the weather would enable me to carry my design into execution.

You will ask whither was I going? Listen, and you shall hear.

About three miles from the shore, and just visible from it, lay a small
islet. It is not exactly correct to say islet. It was but a shoal of
rocks--a small patch, apparently about a square pole in dimensions, and
rising only a few inches above the surface of the water. This, too,
only when the tide was out, for at all other times it was quite covered
with the waves; and then there could only be seen a slender staff
sticking up out of the water to the height of a few feet, and at the
head of this appeared a sort of knob, or lump. Of course the staff had
been placed there to point out the shoal in times of high tide, so that
the sloops and other small vessels that traded up the bay might not run
upon it by mistake, and so get wrecked.

Only when the tide was low, then, was this little islet to be observed
from the shore. Usually, it appeared of a jet black colour; but there
were other times when it was as white as if covered a foot deep with
snow, and then it showed plainer and more attractive. I knew very well
what caused this singular metamorphosis in its colour. I knew that the
white mantle that covered it was neither more nor less than a vast flock
of beautiful sea-fowl, that had settled upon the rocks, either to rest
themselves after so much flying, or to search for such small fish or
Crustacea as might be left there by the tide.

Now this little spot had long been