The tide was now coming up, but Tom made a further journey to the beach, so as to secure something which he had noticed during his previous expedition.  This was a marine plant called dulse, which, in these waters, grows very plentifully, and is gathered and dried by the people in large quantities.  It was a substance of which Tom was very fond, and he determined to gather some, and dry it in the sun.  Collecting an armful of this, he took it to the shore, and spread it out over the grass, though, in that damp and foggy atmosphere, there was not much prospect of its drying.

It was now about three o’clock in the afternoon, and Tom’s researches along the shore were successfully terminated.  He had found all the different articles that he had thought of and his new acquisitions were now lying about him.

These were,—­

Clams,
Lobsters,
Mussels,
Shrimps,
Dulse.

As he murmured to himself the list of things, he smiled triumphantly.

But still there was work to be done.  Tom intended to keep fashionable hours, and dine late, with only a lunch in the middle of the day.  His explorations of the afternoon were to be important, and he hoped that they would be crowned with a portion of that success which had attended the work of the morning.  He took, therefore, a hasty lunch of biscuit and cold lobster, washed down with water, and then set forth.

This time he turned away from the shore, and went to the top of the island.  He carried in his hand a bit of rope, about a dozen feet in length, and went along the edge of the cliff as far as he could, turning aside at times to avoid any clumps of trees or bushes that grew too thickly.  In front of him the line of cliff extended for some distance, and he walked along, until, at last, he came to a place where the gulls flew about in larger flocks than usual, almost on a line with the top of the rock.  He had not noticed them particularly on his former walk along here; but now he watched them very attentively, and finally stood still, so as to see their actions to better advantage.

Tom, in fact, had made up his mind to procure some gulls’ eggs, thinking that these would make an addition to his repast of great importance; and he now watched the motions of these birds, so as to detect the most accessible of their nests.  He did not have to watch long.  A little observation showed him a place, just under the cliff, not far away from him.  Hastening forward, he bent over, and, looking down, he saw a large number of nests.  They had been constructed on a shelf of rock immediately below the edge of the cliff, and the eggs were within easy reach.  The gulls flew about wildly, as the intruder reached down his hands towards their nests, and screamed and shrieked, while some of them rushed towards him, within a few feet of his head, as though they would assail him and beat him off.  But Tom’s determination did not falter.  He cared no more for the gulls than if they were so many pigeons, but secured as many eggs as he could carry.  These he took with him back to his camp.