"Perhaps you are right. God grant that it may be so!"

As he spoke, they reached the fixed ice which ran along the foot of the
precipices for some distance like a road of hard white marble. Many
large rocks lay scattered over it, some of them several tons in weight,
and one or two balanced in a very remarkable way on the edge of the
cliffs.

"There's a curious-looking gull I should like to shoot," exclaimed Fred,
pointing to a bird that hovered over his head, and throwing forward the
muzzle of his gun.

"Fire away, then," said his friend, stepping back a pace.

Fred, being unaccustomed to the use of fire-arms, took a wavering aim
and fired.

"What a bother! I've missed it!"

"Try again," remarked Tom with a quiet smile, as the whole cliff vomited
forth an innumerable host of birds, whose cries were perfectly
deafening.

"It's my opinion," said Fred with a comical grin, "that if I shut my
eyes and point upwards I can't help hitting something; but I
particularly want yon fellow, because he's beautifully marked. Ah! I see
him sitting on a rock yonder, so here goes once more."

Fred now proceeded towards the coveted bird in the fashion that is known