“May 21st.

“We seem to be going all to pieces.  The day commenced badly.  Two of the boys inaugurated it by a violent set-to before breakfast—­an old grudge broke out afresh, or perhaps the life here has demoralized them.  I have lamed my foot.  Tide too high for abalone fishing.  Eggs growing scarce, and the rabbits seem to have deserted the accessible parts of the island.  Everybody is disgusted.  We are forgetting our table-manners, it is ‘first come first served’ now-a-days.  I wonder if Robinson—­oh, no! he had no one but his man Friday to contend against.  No schooner; no change in the weather; tobacco giving out, and not a grain of good humor to be had in the market.  To bed, very cross.

“May 22d.

“No one felt like going to work this morning.  Affairs began to look mutinous.  We have searched in vain for the schooner, now considerably overdue, and are dreading the thought of having to fulfill a contract which calls for six weeks’ labor on these islands.  Some of the other islands are to be visited, and are accessible only in small boats over a sea that is never even tolerably smooth.  This expedition we all dread a little—­at least, I judge so from my own case—­but we say nothing of it.  While thus gloomily brooding over our plight, smoke was sighted on the horizon; we ascended the hill to watch it.  A steamer, doubtless, bound for a sunnier clime, for no clime can be less sunny than ours of the past fortnight....  It was a steamer, a small Government steamer, making directly for our island.  We became greatly excited, for nothing of any moment had occurred since our arrival.  She drew in near shore and cast anchor.  We gathered at the landing-cove to give her welcome.  A boat was beached in safety.  An officer of the law said, cheerfully, as if he were playing a part in a nautical comedy, ’I must beg you, gentlemen, to step on board the revenue cutter, and return to San Francisco.’  We were so surprised we could not speak; or were we all speechless with joy, I wonder?  He added, this very civil sheriff, ’If you do not care to accompany me, I shall be obliged to order the marines on shore.  You will pardon me, but as these islands are Government property, you are requested to immediately withdraw from them.’  We withdrew.  We steamed away from the windy rocks, the howling caverns, the seething waves, the frightful chasms, the seabirds, the abalones, the rabbits, the gloomy cabins, and the pleasant people at the top of the cliff within the white walls of the lighthouse.  Joyfully we bounded over the glassy waves, that grew beautiful as the Farallones faded in the misty distance, and, having been courteously escorted to the city dock, we were bidden farewell, and left to the diversions of the hour.  Thus ended the last siege of the Farallones by the egg-pickers of San Francisco. (Profits nil.)”

And thus I fear, inasmuch as the Government proposes to guard the sea-birds until a suitable license is secured by legitimate egg-pickers, the price of gulls’ eggs will go up in proportion, and hereafter we shall have to look upon them as luxuries, and content ourselves with the more modest and milder-flavored but undecorated products of the less romantic barn-yard fowl.