SIDE IvIGHTS ON BIRDS 



which can be seen from vast distances. Foula 

 stands in a position of even greater isolation than 

 the notoriously desolate St. Kilda, inasmuch as it 

 has no regular steamship service, and its only 

 means of communication with the outer world is 

 by casual trading vessels. So intermittent is 

 the means of correspondence, that a man living at 

 Walls, one of the nearest points on the mainland, 

 informed the writer that he once wrote two letters, 

 one to China and one to a friend in Foula, and 

 that he received a reply from China first. It 

 may be noted here that at election times the 

 returns from Foula are the latest in the United 

 Kingdom. 



The houses, of the usual low, roughly con- 

 structed cotter type, are dotted about irregularly 

 in the more sheltered nooks, and the inhabitants 

 live mainly on their sparse crops and on the pro- 

 duce of the fishing ; the dried fish being called for 

 at intervals by the smacks of the fish curers from 

 Wick and Aberdeen, and tea, sugar, and other 

 commodities being often given in exchange. One 

 peculiarity of the natives is that they are nearly 

 all blood-relations, for the women of the main- 

 land can rarely be induced to take up their 

 abode in a spot so remote and inaccessible. 



As one approaches the island, when still some 

 miles distant, small groups mainly of common 

 guillemots and puffins are met with, growing 

 steadily more numerous as the land is neared. 

 Soon the vast cliffs seem to tower to the sky 

 above one's head, and a marvellous scene is 

 presented. The lower part of the precipice is 

 cut off from view by an eternal veil of mi.st-like 

 spray, constantly shimmering and breaking to 

 give momentary glimpses of the rocks behind. 

 Through this mist, sometimes ascending high, 

 sometimes dropping to the sea, the shadowy 



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