AILSA CRAIG 83 



birds. If Pennant's visit had been before instead of 

 after the publication of " The British Zoology," we 

 could not have failed to have had some account of the 

 birds seen by him on this famous breeding station of 

 sea-fowl. 



The Present Condition of Ailsa Craig Gannetry. — Lying 

 some nine miles off the coast of Ayrshire, this mighty Craig, 

 formed of columnar syenite, rears its great head heaven- 

 wards — 1,114 feet high by Ordnance Survey — and certainly 

 covers twice the area of the Bass Rock, if not more, and I 

 think there are more Gannets on it. The most striking 

 feature is its basaltic or rather syenitic columns, stated to 

 be four, five, and six-sided, resembling, says the Rev. R. 

 Lawson (who has written a useful guide book), the columns 

 of Staffa, or Giant's Causeway, although not so perfectly 

 formed. " From the base to the summit, every here and 

 there, the tops of these columns have been broken off ; and 

 it is on the flat surface of these broken columns that the 

 birds [Gannets] nestle."* 



Any inequality is also taken advantage of, several Gannets 

 sometimes making use of the top of a single column, and 

 not always with the appearance of security, so that Mr. 

 Lawson thought it wonderful that some stormy night the 



*" Ailsa Craig: its History and Natural History," by the Rev. li. 

 Lawson, Paisley, 1895. 



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