STACK BIORRACH.

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St. Kilda who knew how to make one was long-since dead. My purchase weiglis three pounds, is, Iand measures iifty-two feet m length, and need hardly say, treasured as a prize of considerable value amongst my collection of curiosities. Kenneth Macaulay describes the fowling-rope in use at the time of his visit as thirty fathoms long, ' ' made of a strong, raw cowhide... capable of sustaining a great weight, and lasting for about two generations." He adds that " in the testament of a father it constitutes the very first article in favour of his eldest son should it happen to fall to a daughter's share in default of male heirs it is reckoned equal in value to the two best HORSEHAIR ROPE. cows in the isle." Four years ago a girl, whilst watching the men collect eggs on the Doou, had her petticoats ballooned by a sudden squall of wind, and was lifted clean over the clift'. She fell one hundred and eighty feet without a break, and alighted on a ledge which was covered with earth. The cragsuuMi descended to pick uj) what they very natm-ally

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ST. KILDAN FOWLER.

.su])po,sed to be the dead body of the poor child, but were surprised to find that she was still alive. Pier head had entered a large Putfin burrow, and the force of the blow l)cen expended upon her shoulders. This undoubtedly saved her, and although she hung a whole week between life and death in an unconscious condition, she ultimately made a complete recovery, and was a fine buxom lassie at the time of our visit.

Seton has a note to the effect that the Eider Duck is only seen occasionally at St. Kilda. I cannot understand this, for I saw several pairs nearly every morning in Village Bay, and had a clutch of eggs offered to me for sale.

If a stray Heron happens to alight upon St. Kilda the natives firndy believe that they are being-visited by a witch from Stornaway.

It is said the Cuckoo is rarely to be seen in Hirta, and then only upon such extraordinary occasions as the death of MacLeod, his steward, or the arrival of some notable stranger upon the island. This venerable superstition is more than two centuries old, and is still believed in as firndy as ever. In fact, its truth is said to have been verified only a year or two back, when a bird visited the island as a presage of the late proprietor's death.

Bees are never seen at St. Kilda, and V yqvj much doubt whether such insects would find sustenance if tlicy ever found their way thither.

On the evening of the 2'3rd of -Jinu^ w(^ packed up our things and held a kind of farewell meeting, at which we distributed our spare tea, coffee, cheese, butter, and other artickvs amongst the people, as we expected the steauKn- which was to take us away on the morrow to be in the l)ay

in ample time for us to breakfast on board. At eight o'clock next morning she had not hove in sight, and when time dragged heavily along till the stroke of ten was upon us we were all hungry, and I must confess I was a wee bit home- sick, as everything looked so cheerless and dismal.

About eleven o'clock the Ilebridean steamed into sight to our great satisfaction, and we speedily boarded her in search of breakfast.

In due course we shook hands with all the natives, except two or three who were going with us; and a hearty hand-shake it was. We had endeared ourselves to them by frank dealing and readiness to go where they went, endure what they endured, give tobacco and sweets, or accept whey and bannock in the same simple spirit.

This line of conduct is one the value of which I have proved over and over again, and would earnestly impress upon every young field naturalist. It is the royal road to all honest men's hearts, and will help one to much useful knowledge that will forever remain hidden from the man who believes in the cynicism of "every man at his price."

The 8t. Kildans have sent us their "love" by nearly every fishing-boat which has put into Village Bay since we left. As we steamed away and left the islands in our wake, I must confess I felt sorry to leave the many genuine friends we had made, the majestic rocks and their teeming myriads of birds, and turned again and again to watch the lonely crags grow smaller and dimmer upon the horizon.

At Benbecula I parted with my brother, who was going to Skye to stay with our enthusiastic natural history friend H. A. Macpherson, and bade adieu to my companions of tinned provisions and string bed-quilts.

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When the boat in which I sailed reached Tiree, a thick drizzling mist came down and enveloped everything in sombre gloom. A steamer which had just left the island retm-ned and cast anchor rather than risk the dangers of proceeding in such weather but our captain thought he could fetch the Isle of Coll, and accordingly we crept out and away. The sea was perfectly smooth, and not a soul on board recked of danger, except one elderly gentleman who had been already twice in the jaws of maritime disaster. This aged Ulysses told me he had suffered the thrilling horror of having his ship crushed to splinters amongst the ice in high latitudes, and spending three days and nights in an open boat before he reached the shores of Greenland, on one occasion and had been obliged to quit a foundering vessel in the middle of the North Sea on another. These disasters and the hand of Time had to some extent robbed a very fine old man of his nerve; but his expressed fears of an accident were presently justified. allotted distance without We had steamed our meeting with any signs of Coll, and were proceeding at a very cautious rate when suddenly a huge red buoy loomed in sight just ahead of us. The captain at once put his helm hard down, but, unfortunately, the boat had not sufficient way upon her to answer to it, and we crept steadily on to a sunken rock. There was a l)ump and two crunches, and the steamer stopped dead, with her bows in the air and a list to starl)oard. At the moment, I was leaning against a rail studying some horses on the cargo-deck amidships. When the vessel struck, the poor animals stumbled and drummed with their feet on the planks, those with their heads to starboard bumping them against her plates as she heeled over and robbed them of their balance.

All the quoit-playing- and fun on board suddenly ceased, and the cry went round "We're on the rocks! " which was true enough, inasmuch as they could be plainly seen from the forecastle deck. The tragic fate of the people who had gone down with the Dnimmond Castle a few days before was still clinoino^ with all its horrors to the minds of most of our passengers, whose fears were heightened when they saw the crew begin to lower the boats.

No sooner had the ship struck than I dived below for my box of 8t. Kilda negatives, which had been stowed away for safety in the grog cellar beneath the saloon deck, now thickly strewn with broken wine glasses that had been shaken from their place over the dining table.

The order went round that nothing in the shape of lug-oraae could be taken in the boats. I was quite willing to let my clothing and collection of natural history specimens and curiosities go to the bottom, but the St. Kilda negatives I simply couldn't give up. They appealed to me like dumb children, and I, on their behoof, to one of the officers with all the eloquence 1 could summon; but his heart was as adamant, and he regarded not my pleadings. The situation was curious and extremely interesting, for it afforded me an opportunit}^ of noting the Ijehaviour of my fellow creatures in the hour of danger. One little man cut a ridiculous figure by rushing about affecting to be ver}' brave and cool, yet trembling like an aspen-leaf in every limb and looking as white as if he had just shaken hands with a ghost, all the while worrying the crew with such questions as— " lias she got water-tight bulkheads?" "Is the water coming into her?" and so on, to each of which he received a courteous "Yes" or "No " as j2

the answer was judged to be good for his mental comfort, without the slightest regard whatever for the truth. We had a number of ladies on board, and in justice to them I must say that as a whole they were much cooler than the men. One level-headed, practical little Scotswoman, with a delightful accent and hapj^y phraseology, was conspicuous for her good sense and reassuring coolness. Another, who turned out to be a hospital nurse on her holidays, earned my profound admiration by comforting a poor, half-blind St. Kilda woman on her way to a Glasgow Eye Infirmary to have some ophthalmic disease, from which she was suffering acutely, attended to. The poor creature fell into the most pitiable state of fear when she became aware of our j^light, and cried and wailed in a heartrending fashion. I could not bear to look upon her distress as she clung tightly to her comforter and swayed back and forth moanino: in anouish all the while.

Two things struck me particularly during the scene of excitement. One was that several men whose physical appearance was suggestive of robust health and strong nerves were the greatest cowards, and the other that nine out of ten of the male passengers could, according to their expressed opinions to each other, have managed the boat far better than the captain himself, who had been born within a mile or two of the rock we were on, and had steered his ship past it in all weathers for twenty years without a mishap.

Luckily for us the sea was smooth and the tide rising. By shifting all the passengers and a quantity of the deck cargo aft, and steaming full-speed astern, after aljout twenty minutes of suspense we ground our way off the rock into deep water. An

examination was at once made below by the engineer for a leak, but as none could be found we steamed slowly away on our journey.

Nearly everybody stayed on deck during the night, and beguiled the weary hours by telling stories, singing songs, and shivering in the cold, murky drizzle that made the dangerous Sound of Mull exceedingly difficult to navigate.

I went below once, and found the saloon tenanted only b}' a burly horse-dealer and another man, having the appearance of a whisky traveller, holding high debate with a strapping farmer's daughter from North Uist on certain equine ills. I think I fell aslee^^ during a lull on ring-bone, and woke up in the middle of a storm on spavins. The young woman was more than a match for her adversaries, and when she saw me smile approval at some little advantage she had gained in her Avar of words, promptly walked over to where I was sitting and rewarded my intelligence with a handful of oat bannock and skimmed-milk cheese which she took from a small hand-bag. AVe reached Ol^an Bay at three o'clock in the morning, and as day dawned fifteen minutes later, I heard a Thrush begin to sing and a Cuckoo to " tell his name to all the hills around."

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