SULE-SKERRY 163 



a number of years back a boat has come from the island of 

 Lewis to take as many of the young birds as they can 

 reach.* These are generally taken in August, and the number 

 never exceeds 1,000, for the reason that only a small portion 

 of the rock is accessible." The whole extent of the Stack, he 

 thinks, is as much as six acres, reckoning down to the water- 

 line. Mr. Harvie-Brown, while cautiously abstaining from 

 committing himself to an estimate, says : " The entire 

 summit .... is densely populated by Gannets ; and on 

 the north-west side they are equally numerous upon certain 



broad shelves The isolated portions at the ends 



also are covered with the birds [Gannets] to even lower 

 elevations above the sea, but on the west side, where it 

 is more precipitous and a smoother rock, there is very little 

 bird-life." Another witness, the late Mr. James Tomison, 

 who was seven years at the lighthouse on Sule-Skerry, and 

 from whom Mr. Eagle Clarke obtained an account of its 

 birds, t says, when speaking of the Stack, that the rock is 

 simply covered to its summit with Gannets, and thousands 

 continually on the wing going to and returning from fishing. 

 They have never nested on Sule-Skerry, but every year 



* In 1903 or 1904 the boat from Ness was wind-bound on the coast of 

 Sutherlandshire, and was several weeks in getting bank to Lewis, and Mr. 

 Mcintosh was told that the men were not going to the Stack any more^ 

 having had enough of it ! 



t See " Annals Scottish N.H.," 1904, p. 97. 



M 2 



