128 THE GANNET 



Alexander Buchan, there is a lengthy account of the 

 Gannet, but it is copied from Martin, so there is no need to 

 quote it. Buchan went to St. Kilda in 1705, but his writings 

 were not published until after their author's death ; as he 

 was minister there for twenty-five years, according to 

 Mr, Seton,* it is perhaps odd that he left so little original 

 matter behind him. 



4. The next to mention is the Rev. J. L. Buchanan, 

 who, in his " Travels in the Western Hebrides from 1782 

 to 1790 " — a volume published from his notes and not until 

 after his death — indulges in a rather imaginative account 

 of the Gannet, which seems to have been furnished him 

 by one of the islanders, possibly the same individual, who, 

 as our author tells us, " was one of the four men that 

 catched four itts, or jiens, being three hundred each, in the 

 whole twelve hundred Solan geese, in one night." 



Modern History of the Settlement. — As I have never been 

 to St. Kilda I can say nothing of its Gannets from personal 

 observation, but I have endeavoured to read up its literature, 

 which is much more extensive than many would suppose, 

 more especially with reference to birds, and to the fowling 

 which is no longer practised as it was in days of yore. 

 It would take up a good deal of space to enumerate all the 

 books which treat, partially or entirely, of St, Kilda, but 



* " St. Kilda," by G. Seton, 1878, p. 19. 



