One tide-cycle of Fourth Island, which the ferrymen do not point at, ticked over on 2026-10-31. Nobody there keeps a ledger or counts a tide aloud; the kingdom's tide-calendar is borrowed for the numbering, and the account is what a hermit might have noticed. The record follows the gulls this far and no further.
The chronicle
- Tide 1 · autumn · middling · storm — a storm came over the hill; gulls went hungry on the cliffs; the sea put somebody ashore in the night; the storm shook the nuts down in the wood; berries in the wood; the small birds were in the berries; a poor fruit year.
- Tide 2 · autumn · middling · fresh — the tide came up the stones and went down again.
- Tide 3 · autumn · middling · fresh — gulls on the cliffs, and the sea beyond them.
- Tide 4 · autumn · middling · calm — a hawk over the wood, once.
- Tide 5 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls went hungry on the cliffs.
- Tide 6 · autumn · middling · fresh — the pools were still.
- Tide 7 · autumn · middling · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 8 · autumn · springs · fresh — rabbits out on the hill at dusk.
- Tide 9 · autumn · springs · calm — rabbits out on the hill at dusk.
- Tide 10 · autumn · springs · blowing — gulls went hungry on the cliffs.
- Tide 11 · autumn · springs · blowing — the tide came up the stones and went down again.
- Tide 12 · autumn · springs · blowing — the tide came up the stones and went down again.
- Tide 13 · autumn · springs · calm — smoke on the hill.
- Tide 14 · autumn · springs · fresh — a hawk over the wood, once.
- Tide 15 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls went hungry on the cliffs.
- Tide 16 · autumn · middling · blowing — the tide came up the stones and went down again.
- Tide 17 · autumn · middling · calm — gulls on the cliffs, and the sea beyond them.
- Tide 18 · autumn · middling · blowing — gulls went hungry on the cliffs.
- Tide 19 · autumn · middling · fresh — the wood was loud with the wind.
- Tide 20 · autumn · middling · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 21 · autumn · middling · fresh — gulls on the cliffs, and the sea beyond them.
- Tide 22 · autumn · neaps · fresh — the tide came up the stones and went down again.
- Tide 23 · autumn · neaps · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
- Tide 24 · autumn · neaps · blowing — gulls went hungry on the cliffs.
- Tide 25 · autumn · neaps · blowing — the pools were still.
- Tide 26 · autumn · neaps · blowing — the goats were on the crags at low water.
- Tide 27 · autumn · neaps · calm — gulls on the cliffs, and the sea beyond them.
- Tide 28 · autumn · neaps · fresh — nothing anyone would tell.
After the cycle
- the Sounds herring 11871 bloom 29
- Fourth Island gulls 56 shellfish 593
- grazing 4790 deer 0 wolves 0 rabbits 160 foxes 0 squirrels 39 cats 0
- goats 11 harriers 2 sparrowhawks 1 dragonflies 5 ponies 0 alpacas 0
- small birds 144 worms 5309 berries 725
- blossom 0 bees 10 fruit 0 fishing eagles 2
- off over the sea, somewhere gulls 1
- Gathered on the shore: 88 shellfish.
Who does what
- grows — what everything else lives on: the bloom, the grazing, the wood, the shore's shellfish beds, the worms in the turf, the berries, the blossom, the fruit
- feeds — on what grows: herring, shellfish, rabbits, squirrels, goats, small birds
- pollinates — and sets the fruit: bees
- hunts — and keeps the feeders in check: dragonflies, harriers, sparrowhawks, fishing eagles
- picks up after — the hunters and the tide: gulls