THE OUTER HEBRIDES 



CHAPTER XVIII 



Some I^ittle Known Islands. Rockall. Benbecuxa. 

 Fair Island. Vee Skerries, Seven Hunters. 



The Outer Hebrides have an unfailing charm 

 for the naturahst. Much has been written of 

 St. Kilda, with its mighty cHffs tenanted with 

 gannets, fulmars and cormorants innumerable — 

 an island made famous by its very inaccessibility 

 and isolation. The bare, bleak expanses of 

 Lewis, or the Lews, as the islanders name it, are 

 memorable as the home of the " Princess of 

 Thule,'* and are kept in the public mind by the 

 activities of Lord Leverhulme who is seeking 

 to establish new industries there. But many of 

 the islands in the Hebridean group are practic- 

 ally unknown : no foot of tourist desecrates their 

 lonely shores : no steamer calls : they rest ' ' for 

 ever fixed in the solitary sea " grimly alone save 

 for the sea-bird and the seal. Such an island is 

 Sulisgeir, where the gannets nest in numbers 

 that exceed those of the Bass Rock and Ailsa 

 Craig put together. The main surface is a con- 

 fused chaos of rocks, and the only trace of human 

 habitation consists of a few roughly-built huts 

 used as shelters by the men who come in due 

 season to take the eggs and birds. Another 

 is Rockall, an islet which, from its geographical 

 position was at one time regarded as suitable for 

 a meteorological station. But Rockall knows 

 well how to guard its own privacy. When the 

 weather is heavy it disappears in a mass of white 



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