THE BASS ROCK 197 



18. " Travels in Holland, the United Provinces, England, 

 Scotland, and Ireland," mdcxxxiv. — mdcxxxv. By Sir 

 William Brereton, Bart. Edited by Edward Hawkins. 



Brereton's account of Ailsa Craig has already been given,* 

 but there is more which he has to tell us about the 

 Bass Rock in his journal. 



" 26 Junii [1635]. — Upon Friday we departed from 



Barwicke We came from Barwicke about seven 



o'clock and came to Dunbair about twelve Six 



miles hence in the sea (though it be a far shorter cut by 

 land) is the island of Bass, which is here very conspicuous ; 

 a mighty high rock placed in the sea, whereinto there is 

 only one passage, and that for a single person. This is now 

 fortified, and inhabited by the lord of the Bass. It is about 

 one English mile [from the shore]. Herein are kept sheep 

 and some kine and coneys ; abundance of fowl breed here, 

 solem-geese, storts, scoutes, and twenty several sorts of 

 fowl, which make such a noise as that you may hear them 

 and nothing else a mile before you come to them. These 

 solem-geese (as it is reported of them), when their eggs are 

 sufficiently sitten, they stamp upon them with their feet, 

 and break them ; they breed in the sides of the rocks, 

 and there is fowl (said to be) sold here, taken in this island, 



* See p. 70. 



