The Face Of The Rock, Above The Portion Which Is The
Haunt Of The Birds, Was Fairly Tapestried With Herbage
And flowers which
the perpetual moisture of the atmosphere keeps always fresh - daisies
nodding in the wind, and the crimson
Phlox, seeming to set the cliffs on
flame; yellow buttercups, and a variety of other plants in bloom, of which
I do not know the name.
Magnificent as this spectacle was, we were not satisfied without climbing
to the summit. As we passed upward, we saw where the rabbits had made
their burrows in the elastic peat-like soil close to the very edge of the
precipice. We now found ourselves involved in the cold streams of mist
which the strong sea-wind was drifting over us; they were in fact the
lower skirts of the clouds. At times they would clear away and give us a
prospect of the green island summits around us, with their bold headlands,
the winding straits between, and the black rocks standing out in the sea.
When we arrived at the summit we could hardly stand against the wind, but
it was almost more difficult to muster courage to look down that dizzy
depth over which the Zetlanders suspend themselves with ropes, in quest of
the eggs of the sea-fowl. My friend captured a young gull on the summit of
the Noup. The bird had risen at his approach, and essayed to fly towards
the sea, but the strength of the wind drove him back to the land.
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