120 THE GANNET 



the same as the first. In the same year as the second edition 

 of Martin's " Voyage " was pubhshed, there also appeared 

 a second edition of his " Description of the Western Islands 

 of Scotland " (1716), which Mr, Mullens informs me is very 

 much corrected from the first in 1 703. In this "Description," 

 which contains many references to natural history, the 

 contents of the " Voyage " are somewhat abridged, but 

 subsequently they were reprinted in full in the " Mis- 

 cellanea Scotica,"* as well as by Pinkerton in his col- 

 lection of voyages and travels, besides being largely 

 copied by Buchan,t who was at St. Kilda in 1705.| 

 Martin's narrative is not only the first which describes the 

 birds of St. Kilda, but it is the first written by anyone 

 from personal knowledge of the islands. In the preface, 

 which was seemingly not written by himself, an account is 

 given in vivid terms, of the difficulties and perils through 

 which he, with his crew, passed in their voyage to the 

 island. Eventually they were led by watching the flight 

 of the sea-fowl to direct their course to Borrera, which they 

 found covered with a prodigious number of Solan Geese, 



* (1818), II., p. 154. 



•j- " Description of St. Kilda," by the Rev. A. Buchan, 1741. 



f Besides this " Voyage " Martin had the year before written an earlier 

 treatise on the North Islands of Scotland, for "The Philosophical 

 Transactions " (1697, No. VI.). 



