One writer mentions that while on a voyage to St. Kilda, the boat in which he was travelling was sailing at a great pace before the wind, when a Gannet, having marked a fish just in front, stooped and drove its powerful beak through the l^ottom of the vessel, breaking its neck in the collision.

When Ave finally left St. Kilda on board the Hebridean, we were told that the caj^tain intended to steam round Ijy Stack Lee in order to give his passengers a sight of the birds upon it. As the boat came abreast of the towering rock, some members of the crew loaded and ran out a small brass cannon. The tip of a red-hot poker applied to the touch-hole of the gun produced a deafening explosion, which seemed to be instantly fiung back at us by Stack Lee, and then thundered and rever-berated from crag to crag along the rocky sides of Borrera, sending a great white cloud of startled Gannets into the air above us. Yet in spite of this vast multitude wheeling round and round, and rising slowly higher and higher, the birds on Stack Lee

had suffered no apparent diminution in numbers. When we had steamed round to the opposite side of Borrera and a considerable distance away from it, I witnessed one of the most curious sights it lias ever been my good fortune to behold.

A gleam of sunshine fell between two immense j^innacles of rock, causing a great ray of bright light to descend obliquely to the sea, very much like a shaft of morning sunlight })enetrating an empty room through a notch-hole in a closed shutter. The Gannets returning to their nests, could be plainly seen wheeling and dancing in this ray of sunshine, like atoms of white dust.

CHAPTER III.

THE BIRDS AND FO\YLER.S OF ST. KILDA {coiltiuucd).

sitting on the rocks round VillageWHILST

Bay watching Ijirds through my field glasses, I several times observed the curious behaviour of the wind on the water during squally weather. It would descend from the hill-tops round about, and striking one particular spot spread out in an almost perfect circle, producing an effect very similar to that of a stone cast into the middle of a placid pool.

Of the dangers of squally weather at St. Kilda we had heard a great deal, but certainly never dreamed that we should soon have such a very disagreeable example of its treachery as to make us doubt seriously whether we should ever live to tell the tale of our experiences.

It came about in this way. We had been unable to do any photographic work one rather blustering, showery day, and as the weather cleared up, and apparently became quite settled towards evening, young Fergusson invited my brother and me to go fishing with him in Village Bay. operations by the gap dividing We conmienced St. Kilda from the Doon, and rowed quietly along, huo-o'ino- the shore until we came to the end of the latter island. As we put about to pull back I noticed a black, ominous-looking cloud looming up behind Conagher, and asked the boatmen, who

were all of the young-er generation and could speak English veiy well, what it meant. "Just a shower," they answered. By the time we had rowed halfway back along the Doon it had become so dark that we could hardly see across the bay. This seemed to increase the voracity of the fish, and we hooked one monster after another as fast as we could haul them up. Just as I was in the act of landing one the boat was struck by a blinding deluge of rain. The sea rose directly, and the wind swept the crests of the waves off and twirled them into stinging showers of white spray. Our crew, consisting' of four strong young fellows, pulled away at the oars vigorously, but made no progress so far as I could note by such jutting crags as were visible through the mirk of the storm. By-and-by they made the boat creep along, and in a while we came to a cave in which the St. Kildans hoped to find shelter from the wind and waves. Instead, however, of proving a haven of safety, it turned out to be a veritable death-trap. The huge waves lifted our wee craft and flung it forward with such force that it looked perilously like l^eing janmied into the crevice in which the little cave ended.

Our boatmen had hitherto been speaking in English, but the exciting character of the situation soon sent them back upon their Gaelic, in which tongue they yelled at each other furiously. One of them lost his head so far that, instead of keeping-his oar against the side of the cave in order to push the boat off, drew it in and lu'ld it straight up, nuist fashion, and in we went on the next roller. 1 nuide sure tluit lier Ijows would jam luider an overhanging crag and that the succeeding wave would fill her, a disaster which would undoubtedly have befallen us had not my brother jumped up

KITTIWAKES NESTING ON DOON

WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

and held her out by placing both hands against the rock. He told me afterwards that the effort was so great that it appeared to strain every muscle in his body. Some idea of the danger of our situation may be gathered when I state that more than once, as a wave broke against the overhanging side of the cave on our starboard, it splashed into the boat, and during the back suck of the swell we trailed and bumped on the sloping rock on our port.

The whole scene was one of indescribable grandeur from an elemental point of view. Outside, the sea and the descending torrents of rain were mixing in a wild tumult of spray and foam. The waves were leaping against the black basaltic crags, and making fearsome thunder in the great caves that tunnel the Doon in places right through from Village Bay to the Atlantic.

Perhaps the strangest thing of all in this scene of gloom and uproar was that afforded by twenty or thirty gentle little Kittiwakes, sitting on their nests in the utmost peace and security only a few feet over our imperilled heads.

In from twenty minutes to half an hour the storm blew itself out, and I think we all breathed a sigh of relief when we regained the open water in safety. As a matter of fact, to seek refuge in such a place was the maddest thing we could have done.

Without any desire to propound a psychological problem, or in any way boast of my nerve, I will here mention a fact which I must confess I cannot quite understand. While sitting in the boat during the episode I have just recorded I did not realise my danger half so acutely as I did when thinking the matter over quietly in my hammock the same night. I recollect a similar thing occurring before

to me, when a lunatic with whom I happened to be travelling- in a miclnig'ht express from London to the North, suddenly whipped out a revolver and, clapping the cold muzzle to my temples, threatened, with(jut the slightest provocation, to blow my brains out. In both cases I am persuaded that my mind was too busy with the facts to allow the prime operate.agent of fear—the imagination—to

We tried the fish again, but somehow or other our indiarubber sand-eels had lost their charm, and now we toiled for nought. Our catch before the storm, however, was by no means a small one; as upon landing we counted twenty splendid Coalfish, averaging about ten pounds aj)iece, as they were flung from the boat on to the rocks.

I secured one for myself, as I wanted its entrails t!^ use as a lure for Ravens and Hooded-Crovvs. I put the fish carefully away inside the cleit which stood in front (jf our cottage, and walled up tl^e entrance in order to prevent the ever-prowling, fish-loving dogs from getting at it. I believe that the dogs of St. Kilda know from the sound of the breakers when the tide is ebbing, for two or three of them were always to be seen slinking backwards and forwards along the narrow strip of sand visible at the head of Village Bay during low water. I do not remember being down at this spot once without seeing them or their footprints.

The next day being Sunday, and the longest in the year of Grace eighteen hundred and ninety-six, I waited until it had passed and my friends had all tucked themselves away in their hammocks, when I put on my great-coat, and seizing a coujile of military blankets and a double-barrelled gun, quietly st(jle out of the house with the intention of passing the rest of the night in the cleit in front of it, for

H 2

I^urposes of observation, and if possible the securing* of some predatory birds of which the natives were desirous I should rid tlicm.

I dragged the fish forth, and extracting its digestive organs phiced them on the top of another cleit, within gunshot of the one in which I was about to locate myself. This done, I retired and walled up the doorway to within an inch or two of the top; and carefully spreading a few handfuls of old hay on the stones to prevent the gun-barrels from making a noise or getting scratched^ loaded, rolled myself up in my wraps, and Ijegan an enthusiastically expectant wait. It was never really too dark to read bold print, but the birds did not begin to stir until about three o'clock, when a Wheatear saluted the coming day with his familiar note. The Kittiwakes down in the bay next began to stretch themselves and say good morning to each other. When day had fairly dawned I heard the hoarse croak of a Raven, and raising myself on one knee cocked my gun and waited in that glorious state of excitement peculiar to men who have tarried long and patiently for a first shot at some cunning-bird or beast, against whose highly- developed instincts of self-preservation they have pitted their wits and skill. But the music of that particular Raven became fainter and fainter as he swung round the shoulder of Conagher, and my teeth chattered louder and louder as I knelt and sliivered in the icy-cold wind that swept through the open walls of the structure within which I had concealed myself. Creeping cautiouslv to the opposite end of the cleit I saw through a hole, which commanded a-good view of the village, a Great l^hick-ljackcd Gull standing sedately on a house-top, whilst a

number of Hcrriiio-- Gulls were searching the refuse lieaj) in front of it for some garbage upon which they might make a breakfast.

Presently I saw a pair of Ravens come round the breast of steep ]\Iullach Oshival. They were flying at a very leisurely pace, and appeared to be coming straight towards me. I waited with bated breath, tliinkino- thev would discover the feast I had provided for them; but alas! they only croaked solemnly to each other, and passed on to the other end of the village. Half an hour later I heard a Grey Crow speak out close at hand. A fleeting shadow passed the chinks in the wall, and he plumped down with considerable clatter on the roof of the cleit immediately over my head. I kept perfectly still, and in a few .seconds he made out the position of the carrion and winged his way straight to it. Just as he alighted my eye ran along the gun-barrel, there was a reverberating bang, and one Hooded-Crow less to trouble the natives of Hirta by stealing the eggs and young of their precious Ijirds.

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