Some idea of the roughness of the sea in these parts during a westerly gale, coming straight from the bosom of the Atlantic, may be gathered from the fact that waves have been known upon occasion to leap over a part of the Doon, three hundred feet in height, and j^our down the slope into Village Bay in great green and white cataracts.

Martin noticed that in hauling their boats up the rocks out of the sea the natives employed " a cryer, on purpose to warn all at the same minute, and he ceases whenever he finds it convenient to give them a breathing." Exactly the same practice holds good to-day; and so long have the peoj)le

u WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA.

liaulcd their bojits up in one particular spot that the rock is grooved by the grinding of innumerable keel-plates. Ill that chronicler s time tluM-e were about eighteen horses on the island, but now there is not a single one.

Two hundred years ago the St. Kildans took care to keep their graveyard " perfectly free and void of any kind of Hastiness "; but now, alas, it is neglected and overgrown with nettles and other noxious weeds, from the midst of which I saw a single headstone peeping, grey and gaunt, like a weird sentinel over the sleeping dead, who are, after all, in such an utterly out - of - the - world ])lace, only a little Aiithnfs Font. St. Kildan's FimI. more asleep than

ANKLE DEVELOPMENT.

the ])oor cnnitures who linger round them still able to hear the boom of the sea breaking u})on the rocks at their feet

One of the first things that struck me as j)ecuHai' about the St. Kildaiis was the almoinial size of their ankle joints and the thickness of their insteps. So much was i impressed with this speciaHscd about, no doubt, l)y longdevelopment—brought thai igenerations of rock and stccp-hill ('bnd)ing-had tlic i'ool of a man, corresponding as nearly as possil)le in point of size and weight with myself.

Aiithnfs Font. St. Kildan's FimI. ANKLE DEVELOPMENT.

CLEIT FOR STORING FUEL OR HAY.

photogTaphecl side by side with my owii in order to show the difference. From j\Iartin's time down to quite recently, according to the testimony of various writers, the fair-complexioned members of the community appear to have been in the majority, but the dark ones now have the ascendancy in point of numbers.

Their fuel consists of turf stripped from the hill sides, and stored in the numerous cleits which are dotted about all over the place like mere heaps of stones carelessly thrown together and surmounted by a few sods. The entrance to nearly all these curious structures is barred by half-a-dozen stones r(nighly piled one upon another, but some of the largest and best have wooden doors to them, as shown in our illustration. The object propping the door up is the jawbone of a whale, probably belonging to a dead leviathan which was seen floating past in 1886 and towed into Village Bay, where it melted so fast in the hot sun that the St. Kildans secured only 150 gallons of its oil. These cleits, which have been estimated to lumiber no less than five thousand individual buildings, are of very simple construction, consisting of two parallel side-walls three or four feet apart and four or five feet in height, with rough lintel stones across the to^), on which is piled a quantity of turf so sloped as to keep out the rain. The wind rushes through 1 can testify,the side-walls at a furious rate— as (h'ies whateverhaving spent a night in one—and is placed in them. The Gulf Stream occasionally takes charge of a plank washed off an Atlantic timber l)oat aiul laiuls it in Village Bay. I saw several hnnps of wood that had conu' ashore in this way, but most of it had l^een rendered useless by the burrowings of

A 1) in FTED BUOY.

iiiiiiinierable teredos. The accompanying- picture shows the havoc wrought by these little creatures in a piece of tinil)er I picked up and brought home as a curiosity. The Gulf Stream played the St. Kildans rather a cruel trick not long ago. A man whilst out on the hill - tops one afternoon had his attention attracted by the most bewildering object he had ever gazed upon. It was - red,a great blood conical thing bobbing about in the sea away to the w^est. After watching it for a moment, he rushed madly down to the village with the strange news. A boat was at once launched and pulled round the end of the Doon, where it fell in with the astonishing prize which, from its re- DRIFTWOOD BORED BY TEREDOS, markable appearance and shape, was adjudged to be of great value. As there was a good deal of sea running at the time, and the size and shape of the prize made it somewhat inimanageable, it took a long time and a great deal of hard work to get it home and liauled

into a.saf(^ place. AVlien this had, however, been accomplished, thej had nothing to do but speculate often and lavishly as to its value, and the fortune it would probably make for them all when its owner turned up to claim it. Alas, when the factor called the following- summer, it was discovered to be only an old iron Ijuoy that had broken loose from its moorings in New York harbour and drifted across the Atlantic. It now lies at Dunvegan, in Skye, an object of considerable curiosity to trippers, but not beloved of anybody hailing- from St. Kilda. It was afterwards discovered to have taken two years to cross the Atlantic. There are a number of domestic Fowls on the island, but their owners hold them in no great esteem, as they say the l:)irds eat more than they are ^vortli. When the enormous supply of sea-birds and their eggs is taken into consideration, I don't think this can be wondered at.

At one time Seals used to visit St. Kilda in such numbei's that the steward took part of his dues in those the people caught. I was assured that this amphibian seldom comes n(^ar the place now, a fact Avhicli affords a curious example of the chaiigiiig habits of animals.

AYe saw one or two Sharks swiumiiiig about in and around Village Bay, with their great dorsal fins standing out of the water dark and ominous. The natives said that their ])resence argued the oncoming of rough weather, but it did not arrive with particular boisterousness whilst we were there.

The ^•oung women and children used to come and sit in our cottage every (n^ening for an hour or two, knitting and munching sweets whilst they listened to a round of funny stories, wdiicli they

eujoved heartily. I amused them highly on one occasion by putting my brother up for auction as an eligible vounji- man who could climl) cliffs, catch fowls, pliotog-i'a])h, and tlirt. As 1 couldn't get a bid I offered him for a sovereign. An old maid, who couldn't speak English, informed me through the factor that she wouldn't give me sixpence for him. Not to be outdone, I at once gave her a pressing invitation to accompany us back to London, in order that she might get to know him better on the road; but she answered, with the traditional suspicion of her race, that she wouldn't go if I gave her as much money as MacLeod had, as she was too much afraid Ave should throw her overboard.

The St. Kildans have a deep love for their rocky home. I playfully invited several of them to accompany me on leaving the island, ]jut they shook their heads, and told me they couldn't live without " going to the rocks." I think that this attachment to the land of one's birth is a thing proportionate to its isolation. My own heart often pines for a breath of moorland air, and in my dreams I hear the Curlews crying far away on lonely hilltops. I knew a little girl, living high up in a wild Yorkshire dale, who was compelled bv force of circumstances to move away with her parents into a big Lancashire manufacturing town. One day some of her relations sent a pound of fresh butter as a present, wrapjoed up in dock leaves. The little girl's heart remained so true to the land of her birth that she seized one of these and said—"Let me kiss it, mother; it has come from dear old Muker." I had heard and read a good deal about the unblushing greed and covet(jusness of the

5(1 w]'rn XATruK and a camera.

St. Kildaiis, and must admit that I was staog-ored Avlicn one of tlieiii asked me in laboured English ''ten shilling" as an inducement for him to put back a Wren's nest where he had found it—inside one of his ordei- that m' brother miolit cleits—in photogra})h it. Seton records an instance^ of some of them going on board a shi}) that put into the l)ay, and after having a good look round and satisfying their curiosity, expecting to be paid for so doing. A similar thing happened whilst we were on the island. One evening a snuirt little Aaclit })ut in, and the impetuous Ii'ish skij)pei' to Avliom she belonged was so anxious to show his hos])italitA' that he dragged some of the natives who had boarded him (hjwn into his saloon Ijn' their beards and placed a supply of whisky and biscuits before them large enough ''to fill the biggest cow in 8t. Kilda," according to their own account. This gave them a magnificent opinion of him, and they sang his praises loudly when they came ashore. But his popularity was short lived, for he greatly upset them next da}' by giving them nothing, and threatening to kick them all overboard when they showed some relu(;tance to leave his boat without further reward. It has also been said that the peo[)le e.})ect to be paid foi- having their photographs taken. The men never objected to our photographing them, nor, so far as 1 could gather, expected anything for allowing us to do so, though had they done we could not have had serious reason for complaint. 1 was anxious to obtain two pictures in order to show the difference in the head-gear worn 1)}' married and single women, and offered half-aci'owii cacli to anyl)od' who would sit; l)ut to my

;

surprise no one would consent, and it was only by strategy, and a positive assurance that their portraits were not beinu' taken to make fun of them, that we succeeded in oljtaininii" what we wanted.

Before passing- judgment on these poor creatures, it is only fair to them to take evidence on both sides of the questicm of their selfishness, and then throw in a little consideration for the intluence of their utter isolation and the folly of tourists and other visitors who have done much towards the destruction of that ideal state of unw(jrldli-ness which characterised them onl' as far back as 1697, when they "contemned gold and silver as l)elow the dignity of human nature."

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