THE BASS ROCK 255 



that, in his father's time, the price long kept up to two 

 shilHngs and sixpence a gallon. 



Naturalists wJio have Visited the Bass. — In closing this 

 long account of the Bass, I cannot refrain from recalling to 

 memory a few of the names of the many distinguished 

 naturalists who have made a pilgrimage to the Bass Rock 

 in the interests of science. It is an easy enough expedi- 

 tion nowadays to go and see the Gannets there, but it 

 was a very different matter when those two early pioneers 

 of ornithology, the illustrious John Ray and Francis 

 Willughby, sprung ashore on that narrow landing place, 

 which led up to the castle, on August 19th, 1661. The Rock 

 and castle must have been very like Slezer's picture {see 

 p. 218), though the garrison of soldiers had been withdrawn 

 nine years before Ray's visit, no doubt taking with 

 them the three cannon which commanded the landing-stage. 

 In the year 1835, on the same day of August that Ray and 

 Willughby were at the Bass — but 174 years later — 

 two other naturalists nearly as distinguished — William 

 Macgillivray and J. J Audubon, the American, together 

 with the son of the former — also found themselves 

 there by a coincidence which was no doubt not un- 

 designed. Macgillivray, who had already been there in 

 1831,* gives some brief account of this his second visit 

 * See Audubon, " Orii. Biog." (1838), IV., p. 233. 



