46 TRANSACTIONS, NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY OF GLASGOW. 



through the centre of the island in a north-easterly 

 direction and enter the sea at Sourin. The third is 

 the Loch of Wasbister, which is only some 150 yards 

 from the sea. All these contain trout of good quality 

 and size, the Loch of Wasbister being esjDecially noted 

 for the beauty of its fish. The other three lochs 

 are small, and contain no trout. 



From the prevalence of the westerly winds, tree 

 life must have always had a hard struggle for exist- 

 ence ; and this is shown even yet by the trees in 

 the garden. Still, in one or two iDlaces in the island 

 remains of tree roots occur, one of these places being 

 in a sandy bay a little to the west of Westness, 

 where, when digging for bait for sea-fishing, I have 

 come on them in the peat, the whole being covered 

 by a thin layer of sand. Even the heather, where 

 exposed to the full blast of the gales, shows their 

 effects by growing in a stunted and very bushy 

 form, being of little use as cover to the grouse from 

 their inability to burrow into it : much of it, too, 

 grows on a clayey soil, so that when once burnt it 

 never comes up again, being replaced by grass and 

 great quantities of thistles. In the centre of the 

 island the moorland is like ordinary grouse-ground 

 elsewhere, being a succession of good heather, grassy 

 spots, and wet flows. The house of Westness 

 stands on rising ground near the shore, and is 

 surrounded by almost the only trees in the island, 

 principally Sycamore and Wych-elms, which seem best 

 able to stand the autumn and winter gales. The 

 garden is, in the spring and summer, the breeding 

 haunt of most of the Blackbirds and Thrushes in the 

 island; and in the winter, innumerable Starlings 

 roost in the trees, these attracting numerous Merlins 

 and Kestrels — always on the look-out to cut off 

 stragglers. Chaffinches, the commonest birds in most 

 l)laces, were entirely absent all the summer, only 

 putting in an appearance as autumn came on — a 

 most unaccountable thing, as there is ajDparently 

 nothing to prevent their becoming permanent resi- 



