90 WITH NATURE AND A GAMEPxA. 



the ocean ; from thence lie presently returns as if 

 he had made a foreign purchase, but it does not 

 pass for such. For the owner had discovered the 

 fact befor(3 the thief had got out of sight, and 

 too nimble for his cunning, waits his return all 

 armed with fury and engages him desperately ; 

 this bloody battle was fought above our heads, and 

 proved fatal to the thief, who fell dead so near our 

 Iboat that our men took him up and presently 

 dressed and eat him, which they reckoned as an 

 omen of good success in the voyage." 



Although we saw plenty of Solan Geese build- 

 ing their nests, we w^ere not treated to anything 

 in the way of examples of petty larceny and 

 bloody justice which seem to have supplied our 

 rather sanguinary- minded old friend Martin with 

 what he frankly calls a " very agreeable diversion." 



Martin says that he made particular inquiry 

 as to how many 8olan Geese were killed and eaten 

 in St. Kilda in a year, and found that in a bad 

 season no less than twenty-two thousand five 

 hundred had been caught and consumed. Both the 

 people and the birds appear to have been more 

 numerous then than now. 



One authority has estimated the number of 

 Gannets breeding on the St. Kilda group of islands 

 at two hundred thousand, and computed their summer 

 consum])tion of fish at two hundred and fourteen 

 millions, adding that the sight of the birds resting 

 on Stack Lee is " one of tlu^ wonders of the world." 



The Solan Geese return to their breeding quarters 

 on Borrcra and the adjoining rock stacks in ]\Iarch, 

 about the middle of which month the St. Kildans 

 go forth in their Ijoats to raid the sleeping birds 

 under the cover of darkness. According to Sands, 

 the foray is managed in tlic following way: — "Two 



