There was no one part of it better than another ; it was all desolate and rocky ; nothing living on it but game birds which I lacked the means to kill , and the gulls which haunted the outlying rocks in a prodigious number . But the creek , or strait , that cut off the isle from the main-land of the Ross , opened out on the north into a bay , and the bay again opened into the Sound of Iona ; and it was the neighbourhood of this place that I chose to be my home ; though if I had thought upon the very name of home in such a spot , I must have burst out weeping . I had good reasons for my choice . There was in this part of the isle a little hut of a house like a pig 's hut , where fishers used to sleep when they came there upon their business ; but the turf roof of it had fallen entirely in ; so that the hut was of no use to me , and gave me less shelter than my rocks . What was more important , the shell-fish on which I lived grew there in great plenty ; when the tide was out I could gather a peck at a time : and this was doubtless a convenience . But the other reason went deeper . I had become in no way used to the horrid solitude of the isle , but still looked round me on all sides -LRB- like a man that was hunted -RRB- , between fear and hope that I might see some human creature coming . Now , from a little up the hillside over the bay , I could catch a sight of the great , ancient church and the roofs of the people 's houses in Iona . And on the other hand , over the low country of the Ross , I saw smoke go up , morning and evening , as if from a homestead in a hollow of the land . I used to watch this smoke , when I was wet and cold , and had my head half turned with loneliness ; and think of the fireside and the company , till my heart burned . It was the same with the roofs of Iona . Altogether , this sight I had of men 's homes and comfortable lives , although it put a point on my own sufferings , yet it kept hope alive , and helped me to eat my raw shell-fish -LRB- which had soon grown to be a disgust -RRB- , and saved me from the sense of horror I had whenever I was quite alone with dead rocks , and fowls , and the rain , and the cold sea . I say it kept hope alive ; and indeed it seemed impossible that I should be left to die on the shores of my own country , and within view of a church-tower and the smoke of men 's houses . But the second day passed ; and though as long as the light lasted I kept a bright look-out for boats on the Sound or men passing on the Ross , no help came near me . It still rained , and I turned in to sleep , as wet as ever , and with a cruel sore throat , but a little comforted , perhaps , by having said good-night to my next neighbours , the people of Iona . Charles the Second declared a man could stay outdoors more days in the year in the climate of England than in any other . This was very like a king , with a palace at his back and changes of dry clothes . But he must have had better luck on his flight from Worcester than I had on that miserable isle . It was the height of the summer ; yet it rained for more than twenty-four hours , and did not clear until the afternoon of the third day . This was the day of incidents .
In the XXXXX I saw a red deer , a buck with a fine spread of antlers , standing in the rain on the top of the island ; but he had scarce seen me rise from under my rock , before he trotted off upon the other side .
England Ross Second fowls gulls left look-out main-land morning shell-fish