There was no decking and, as 1 made my way shorewards, stepping] from sleeper 10 sleeper, I walked under a swirling cloud of sea birds that circled and screeched over head, No doubt they wondered what this strange intruder of their home could be. Sometimes I came. upon flocks of them perched on the pier and, so unaccustomed were they" to human interference and so unafraid, that T had almost to kick them out of my way.
As last T arrived at the shoreward end of the pier and, this end also having been carried away, clambered down to the beach. With the afternoon sun beating down with sree force on the pure white sand the glare was forride and wished Thad brought my dark glasses.
A little way above high "water mark grew a tangle of tall grasses and brambles and, about fifty yards further inshore, were tall and spreading trees which covered the whole of the interior of the Island.
Clustered near the base of the pier and well above the beach were the remains of what had been " the settlement of the guano workers Wandering among these, with always my attendant swarm of birds, I saw 2 long building which had evidently been the living quarters of the abouters. Also a cook house with the remains of a concrete fireplace and a broken iron pot lying on the sand floor. A
Mournful Desolation They had all been built of poles with galvanized iron walls and roots, Dut the fury of the gales which had assed over this typhoon stricken re-ion had bent the poles and torn away most of the iron sheets. The whole presented a scene of mournful Sesolation and I found myself wonering how the men had fared when
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.