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Here and there stood sharp peaks, lean spires that rose as high as 200 feet; farther off, a succession of steeply cut cliffs sporting a grayish tint, huge mirrors that reflected the sparse rays of a sun half drowned in mist. Beyond, a stark silence reigned in this desolate natural setting, a silence barely broken by the flapping wings of petrels or puffins.
The sea shone, the air was pure, the whole seascape flashed white upon blue white gulls wheeling aloft, white breasts of puffins congregated on the smaller islets, white caps of tiny waves where the breeze met the tide-race, on North Island the white shaft of a lighthouse fronting the almost level sun.
Some artificial piles of stones, near the ledge upon which I had descended, indicated the existence of a trail. On my way down, a legion of birds, about the size of puffins, began to gather around, with fierce cries and warning motions, as if determined to dispute my progress.
Hundreds of puffins and fulmars were in the air, and skimming the waters. The fulmars poised themselves on their long wings; the fat little puffins poffled about in the water, and made a great commotion where everything else was quiet.
The report of his gun made Nance jump, at the other side of the island, and set all the birds on L'Etat except the puffins, deep in their holes circling and screaming. The small shot tore up the water within a couple of yards of the boat, which backed off hastily much to his satisfaction, for he had feared they might rush him before he had time to reload.
Eider-ducks, chattering kittiwakes, and graceful tern, auks, guillemots, puffins, geese, and even swans, swarmed on the islands, far and near, while seals, whales, narwhals, dolphins, and grampuses, revelled in the sea, so that the Arctic world appeared almost overcharged with animal life.
The penguins, heavy and impassive creatures, did not disappear at my approach; they took no notice; but the black petrels, the puffins, black and white, the grebes and others, spread their wings at sight of me. One day I witnessed the departure of an albatross, saluted by the very best croaks of the penguins, no doubt as a friend whom they were to see no more.
One man only made the comment that the sail wanted "tannin' agen," and that was all. But the boys were interested and busy as they swarmed to the edge of the unprotected pier, along which they sat and stood as closely as the upright puffins in their white waistcoats standing in rows along the ledges that towered up above the point.
As they drew near to Leo's favourite sporting-ground, a long flat island with several small lakes on it which were bordered by tall reeds and sedges, where myriads of ducks, geese, gulls, plover, puffins, and other birds revelled in abject felicity, Benjy asked his father what he had got in the box. "I've got somethin' in it, Benjy, somethin'."
Or suppose that different pairs of Kittiwake Gulls on the crowded ledges, or different pairs of Puffins in the crowded burrows, varied in like manner, would they all have equal chances of rearing their offspring?
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