24 WITH NATURE AXB A GAM Eli A. 



awkward situation, for the women squatted tliem- 

 solves down beside his clotlies. He swam round 

 and round for a wliile in tlie hope that their 

 curiosit^' wouhl ere long be satisfied, and that thev 

 would then return to their household duties. Not 

 a bit of it. The sight of a man performing the 

 part of a fish was far too entertaining a business- 

 to be regarded with indifference, and tliey sat on 

 enchanted until he swam close in and told them to- 

 go away. 



Mr. Fiddes, the minister, told me that the tem- 

 perature of the sea round 8t. Kilda is lower in 

 summer than in winter, on acc(junt of the icebergs^ 

 that become detached in Polar regions and drift 

 southwards into the Gulf Stream. He also in- 

 formed me that he was at that moment dis})roving^ 

 the assertions of horticulturists that strawberries- 

 could not be grown in so high a latitude as that 

 in which he lived by producing the fruit in his- 

 own garden. 



I leave horticulturists to crack this nut for 

 themselves, and hasten to present a much more 

 startling one for ornitliologists from the same gen- 

 tleman. He told me in all good faith and sincerity 

 that Great Northern Divers make no nest at all^ 

 but hatch their single c<]:<^ under tlieir wings, in 

 which position he luid liimsclf seen a bird carrying- 

 one. 



U})on re-telling this astounding story to Mac- 

 kenzie his gillie overheard it, and afterwards told 

 me that the minister was (piite right, as three- 

 independent witnesses, including liis own In-other,, 

 had, whilst sitting on the cliffs of Skye one Sunday 

 afternoon, witnessed a Great Noi-iliern Diver lay 

 her Q^\j!^ in the sea below tluMu, and dive aft(>r and 

 catch it Ijefore it readied ilio botloni. ( )n rising to- 



