THE BAS8 ROCK 191 



bowing doune, quhilke indeed, naturallie is black, ze wil 

 think aluttirlie quhyte. In compase it conteines fyve 

 stages and ane in hichte. To this fowle the seyissa natural 

 that gif throuch a tempest, or any vthir chance sche lycht 

 on the ground, quhair the sey sche sies nocht, as sche war 

 destitute of benefite of her wings, sche can no rais her selfe." 



The same friend who supplied me with the preceding 

 extract, Professor Newton, also kindly rendered Leslie's 

 Latin from the original, at the same time putting it into 

 much more literal and intelligible English : — 



" The Forth estuary washes Lothian. In it, beside a 

 huge and infinitely varied multitude of fishes, you may also 

 see a bird elsewhere most rare which is there very abundant, 

 though in one place only. For though in this firth there 

 are not a few islands : May, Bass, Horse's Isle [Inch- 

 keith ?] St. Columba's Isle [Inch Colm] (on which there is 

 a not obscure monastery* of the same name), Gervea, 

 [Inch Garvie]. and others : that bird of which we treat 

 builds its nest on the Bass alone, nor is it found 

 anywhere else with us except on Ailsa Craig in the 

 Vergine [i.e., Irish] Seaf off Galloway. But it is a 

 marine goose, as we say, or that Eagle which Pliny 



* Of which Bower, to whom we owe the first mention of Bass Gannets, 

 was abbot, see p. 171. 



I Verfjivium mare, Ptol = the sea between England and Ireland. 



