CHAPTER VII. 



THE BASS ROCK — Continued. 



The Bass Rock continued — History of its Gannets in Modern 

 Times — Extent of their former Breeding Area — Compared to what 

 it is at present— Their Numbers now and formerly — The letting 

 value of the Bass — Ray, Willughby, and other Naturalists who 

 have visited the Bass. 



Modern History of the Bass Gannets. — The Bass Rock, 

 a vast and imposing mass, composed, geologists tell us, of 

 clinkstone trap, much lower it is true than Ailsa Craig, 

 yet rising majestically from the sea, attains to a height of 

 350 feet (ordnance survey), but if the fathomed depth around 

 it be taken into account, its total height is much greater. 

 There it has stood, defying the elements, impervious alike 

 to time and weather, the home of the Gannet, none 

 can say for how many centuries, or thousands of years. 

 We have the testimony of Beowulf the Saxon that there 

 were Gannets in the North Sea when his poem, which is 

 ascribed to the sixth century, was written, and where are 

 they likely to have been bred, if not on the Bass Rock ? 



