“Wait till we get to another island,” said Bill. “I don’t particularly want to stop out at sea, with a storm in the offing. It’s so jolly hot I feel there must be thunder about. I’m anxious to run for shelter before it comes. Now — here are more islands bobbing up out of the sea. Let’s see if we can spot a puffin island. That’s what you want, isn’t it?”
Lucy-Ann, still dangling her hand in the water, suddenly felt something gently touching it. In surprise she looked down, withdrawing her hand at once, afraid of a jellyfish.
To her astonishment she saw that it was a piece of orange peel, bobbing away on the waves. She called to Bill.
“Bill, look — there’s a bit of orange peel. Now whoever in the world eats oranges in these wild little islands? Do you suppose there ate any other bird-lovers somewhere about?”
Everyone looked at the tiny bit of orange peel bobbing rapidly away. It did seem very much out of place there. Bill stared at it hard. He was puzzled. The fishermen, if there were any on the islands they were coming to, would not be at all likely to have oranges. And naturalists surely would not bother to load themselves up with them.
Then how did that bit of peel come to be there? No ships went anywhere near where they were. It was a wild and lonely part of the sea, where sudden storms blew up, and great gales made enormous waves.
“Beats me!” said Bill at last. “I shall expect to see a pineapple or something next! Now look! — here is an island — fairly flattish — probably has puffins on it all right. Shall we make for it?”
“No — cruise round a bit,” begged Jack. “Let’s have a look at a few of the islands here. There is quite a colony of them round about.”
They cruised round, looking at first this island and then that. They came to one that had steep cliffs at the east side, then ran down into a kind of valley, then up again into cliffs.
Jack put his glasses to his eyes and yelled out excitedly. “Puffins! Plenty of them! Can you see them, Philip? I bet the island is full of their burrows. Let’s land here, Bill. There’ll be masses of birds on the cliffs, and hundreds of puffins inland. It’s quite a big island. We could probably find good shelter here and water too. The cliffs would protect us from both the east and the west. What ho, for Puffin Island!”
“Right,” said Bill. He looked all round and about, as he guided the boat towards the island. There were many other islands not far off, but as far as he could see they were inhabited only by birds. The sea chopped about between the islands, making little rippling waves.
Round Puffin Island went the boat, and Philip gave a shout. “Here’s a fine place to put the boat in, Bill — see, where that channel of water goes into a cleft of the cliff! It’ll be deep there, and we can just tie the boat up to a rock. We’ll put out the fenders, so that she doesn’t bump against the rocky sides.”
The boat nosed into the channel. As Philip said, the water was deep there — it was a natural little harbour. There was a ledge of rock on which they could land. Could anything be better? — Hurrah for Puffin Island!
Chapter 10
A LITTLE EXPLORING
“ISN’T this a gorgeous place?” said Jack, as the boat glided gently into the little channel. There was just room for it. “It might be a boat-house made specially for the Lucky Star.”
Bill leapt out on to the rocky ledge, which did very well for a landing-stage. Sheer above them on each side rose rocky cliffs. Rows and rows of birds sat on the ledges, and there was a continual coming and going. There was also a continual dropping of eggs, knocked off by the careless birds. One broke near Bill, and splashed its yellow yolk over his foot.
“Good shot!” he yelled up to the circling birds, and the children roared.
They made the boat fast by tying the mooring-rope round a convenient rock. The boat bobbed up and down gently as waves ran up the little channel and back.
“Tide’s up now,” said Bill. “When it goes down there will still be plenty of water in this channel. The boat will look much lower down then. Now — is there a way up the cliff from here? We don’t want to have to walk down the ledge and clamber round the cliff over hundreds of rocks before we get on to the island proper.”
They looked round. Jack ran up the rocky ledge, and then turned and gave a shout. “Hi! We can get up here, I think. There are rocky shelves, like rough steps, going up the cliff — and there’s a break in it a bit above. We could probably clamber out all right, and find ourselves right on the island.”
“Well, you four go and explore,” said Bill. “I’d better stay with the boat and see that she doesn’t get her sides smashed in against these rocks. You look round the island and see if you can spot a sheltered cove somewhere, that I can take the boat round to.”
The four children left the boat and followed Jack. Kiki flew on ahead, calling like a gull. Up the rocky ledges went Jack. They were almost like giant steps, roughly hewn by the great wintry seas for century after century.
As Jack said, the cliff had a deep cleft in it just there, and the children found that they could make their way through it, and come out on to the cushions of sea-pinks beyond. It needed a bit of clambering, and they were out of breath when they reached the top — but it was worth it.
The sea spread bright blue all round the island. The sky looked enormous. Other islands, blue in the distance, loomed up everywhere. A real colony of them it seemed — and their island was in the centre.
Then Jack gave such a yell that everyone jumped. “Puffins! Look! Hundreds and hundreds of them!”
The children looked to where Jack pointed and there, among the sea-pinks and the old heather tufts, were the most curious-looking birds they had ever seen.
They were dressed in black and white. Their legs were orange — but it was their extraordinary bills that held the children’s attention.
“Look at their beaks!” cried Dinah, laughing. “Blue at the base — and then striped red and yellow!”
“But what enormous beaks!” cried Lucy-Ann. “They remind me a bit of Kiki’s.”
“Puffins are called sea parrots,” remarked Jack, amused to see the crowd of solemn-looking puffins.
“Their eyes are so comical,” said Philip. “They stare at us with such a fixed expression! And look at the way they walk — so upright!”
The colony of puffins was as good as a pantomime to watch. There were hundreds, thousands of birds there. Some stood about, watching, their crimson-ringed eyes fixed seriously on their neighbours. Others walked about, rolling from side to side like a sailor. Some took off like small aeroplanes, eager to get to the sea.
“Look! — what’s that one doing?” asked Lucy-Ann, as a puffin began to scrape vigorously at the soil, sending a shower of it backwards.
“It’s digging a burrow, I should think,” said Dinah. “They nest underground, don’t they, Jack?”
“Rather! I bet this island is almost undermined with their holes and burrows,” said Jack, walking forward towards the colony of busy birds. “Come on — do let’s get near to them. Kiki, keep on my shoulder. I won’t have you screaming like a railway engine at them, and scaring them all away.”
Kiki was most interested in the comical puffins. She imitated their call exactly. “Arrrrr!” they said, in deep, guttural voices. “Arrrrrrrr!”
“Arrrrrr!” answered Kiki at once, and various birds looked up at her enquiringly.
To the children’s huge delight the puffins were not in the least afraid of them. They did not even walk away when the children went near. They allowed them to walk among them, and although one aimed a peck at Philip’s leg when he stumbled and almost fell on top of it, not one of the others attempted to jab with their great beaks.
“This is lovely!” said Lucy-Ann, standing and gazing at the extraordinary birds. “Simply lovely! I never thought birds could be so tame.”
“They’re not exactly tame,” said Jack. “They’re wild, but they are so little used to human beings that they have no fear of us at all.”
The puffins were all among the cushions of bright sea-pinks. As the children walked along, their feet sometimes sank right down through the soil. The burrows were just below, and their weight caused the earth to give way.