to me a place of first-rate interest,
partly on account of its remote and isolated situation; but more, I
fancy, on account of these very birds, for in no other part of the bay
had I seen so many of them together. It seemed also to be a favourite
place with them; for at the going out of every tide, I observed them
gather from all directions, hover around the staff, and then settle down
upon the black rocks around it, until the latter were hidden from the
view behind the white bodies of the birds. These birds were gulls; but
there appeared to be several kinds of them; large ones and small ones,
and at different times I had noticed birds of other kinds, such as the
great terns and grebes, preening themselves in the same neighbourhood.
Of course, from the shore the view one could have of these creatures was
a very distant one, and it was difficult to tell to what species they
belonged. The largest of them appeared not much bigger than sparrows,
and had they not been on the wing, or so many of them together, they
might have moved about unnoticed by any one passing along the shore.

I think it was the presence of these birds that had made this remote
spot so interesting to me. At a very early age I was fond of all
objects of natural history, but particularly of the creatures that have
wings, and I believe there are few boys that are not so. There may be
sciences and studies of greater importance to mankind, but there is none
more refining to the taste or more fascinating to the youthful fancy
than the study of nature. Whether it was to get a good look at the
birds, or whether from some curiosity about other things I might see
upon this little islet, I often wished that I could get to it. Never
did I turn my eyes in that direction--and I did so as often as I came
near the beach--without feeling a strong wish to get there and explore
it from end to end. I knew in my memory the exact shape of it when the
tide was lowest, and could at any time have chalked out its profile
without looking at it. It was lower at both ends, and rose with a sort
of curve towards the middle, like a huge black whale lying along the
surface, and the staff, rising from the highest point, looked like a
harpoon that was sticking in his back.

That staff, too, I longed to get my hands upon; to see what it was made
out of; how high it really was if one were near it, for it only looked
about a yard high from the shore; what sort of a thing the knob