THE BASS ROCK 239 



' find footing, which even admitting some slight exaggeration, 

 shows how numerous they must have been. In 1693 Slezer 

 speaks of " the surface of it [the Bass] being almost covered 

 with tlieir nests, eggs and young birds."* In 1769 we 

 find Thomas Pennant remarkingf that there were still 

 multitudes of nests near the sloping part, which must 

 have meant the grass part, but Pennant did not land on 

 the Bass. In 1816 Sir William Jardine writes of there 

 being still nests on the summit of the Rock (" Nat. Lib.," 

 XIV., p. 245). In 1831 Macgillivray says that he found 

 300 nests on a gravelly slope near the landing place. In 

 1859 Robert Gray writes that they had not yet abandoned 

 the upper slopes, J i.e., the grass slopes, where Professor 

 Cunningham observes there were still some as late as 

 1862, and where even in 1869 Mr. William Evans 

 remembers nests well above the present limits. 



Persecution of Gannets. — But the Gannets ceased to be 

 appreciated, and invention, with the consequent cheapening 

 of firearms put guns into everybody's hands. The public 

 taste in eatables had changed. There was no demand 

 for them, thus they became no longer worth protecting. 

 Evil days came upon the Gannets when their principal 



* "Theatrum Scot.," edition 1718, p. 42. 

 t " A Tour in Scotland " (1790), II., p. 60. 

 X "Birds of the West of Scotland," p. 460. 



