The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1870-05-26
Sea Fowl.

An American traveller gives vivid descrip-
ton of the immense collections of sea-fowl on
Ailsa Craig, an island on the west coast Of
Scotland:
"The steamer kept nearing the giant Craig,
which was bare rock from summit to sea,
1900 feet high, and of dull, chalky white
ness. occasioned, as the captain said, by the
excrement of the birds. We had got so near
as to see the white birds fitting across the
black entrances of the caverns, like bees about
the hive. With the spyglass we could see
them distinctly, and in very considerable num-
bers, and at length approached so that we
could see them on the ledges all over the sides
of the mountain. We had passed the skirt on
the Craig, and were within half mile, or less,
of its base. With the glass we could now see
the entire mountain side peopled with the sea-
fowl, and could hear their whimpering, house
hold CRY as they moved about or nestled In do
mestic snugness on the ten thousand iedges.
The air, too, about the precipices seemed to be
alive with them. Still we had not the slightest
conception of their frightful multitude We
got about against the centre of the mountain,
when q cannon was purposely fired. The shot
went point-blank against it and struck the
tremendous precipice as from top to bottom,
with reyerbration like the discharge of q
hundred cannon. And what sight followed!
They rose up from that mountain-the count
less myriads and millions of sea-birds-in q
universal overwhelming cloud that covered
the whole heavens, and their cry was like the
cry of an alarmed nation. Up they went
millions upon millions ascending like the
smoke of furnace countless Us the sands on
the sea-shore- dreadful for multitude,
as if the whole mountain were dissolving into
life and light, and with an unearthly kind OF
lament, took up their line of march in every
direction off to sea | The sight startled the
people on board the steamer, who had often
witnessed it before, and for some minutes there
was a general quietness. For our own part, we
were quite amazed and overawed at the specta-
cle We had seen White Mountain Notches
and Niagara Falls in our own land, and the
vastness of the wide and deep ocean which was
then separating us from it. We had seen some
thing of arts magnifcence in the old world,
its cloud-capped towers, its gorgeous palaces
and solemn temples but we had never wit
messed sublimity to be compared to that rising
of sea-birds from Ailsa Craig. They were OF
countless varieties, in kind and size, from the
largest goose to the smallest marsh, bird and OF
every conceivable variety of dismal note. OH
they moved, in wild and alarming rout, like a
people going into exile, filling the air far and
wide with their reproachful lament at the wan
ton cruelty that had broken them up and driv-
en- them into captivity. We really felt re-
morse at it, and the thought might have oc-
Cured to us, how easy it would have been for
them, if they he'd known that the little smoking
speck that was laboring along the sea-surface
beneath them, had been the cause of their
banishment, to have settled down upon it and
engulfed it out of sight forever!
1--WE felt astonished that we had never be-
fore heard of this wonderful haunt of sea-fowl.
1t struck us really as one of the wonders of
the world And not us alone: others, not at
all given to the marvellous, declared that it
surpassed everything they had ever before wit
messed. We supposed the mountain must have
been quite deserted, from the myriads that had
flown away but lifting the glass to it, as we
were leaving its border, we were appalled, to
find it still alive with the myriads left behind."