DIVING AND FLIGHT 409 



sunk from nine to twenty, but sometimes to the depth of 

 thirty fathoms [i.e., 180 feet], just as the fish, herrings, &c., 

 are lying. They are taken at all these depths, when the 

 water is rough as well as smooth, and in both the cod and 

 turbot nets (respectively five and seven inches in the 

 mesh)." The same story is also independently told by 

 Gould, who had it when at Ballantrae from some boat- 

 men (" Birds of Great Britain," Vol. V.). On one occasion 

 one hundred and twenty-eight were taken. Thompson's 

 correspondent goes on to say that Red-throated and 

 Great Northern Divers, and Puffins, are also taken in 

 the men's fishing-nets, but does not specify the depth at 

 which they got them. I am informed that the cod season 

 only lasts from January to March or April, at which time 

 Gannets would be returning in numbers to their summer 

 quarters. Ballantrae is some fifteen miles to the south of 

 Ailsa Craig, and off it there lies a large sand-bank, over which 

 the depth of the water varies from one hundred to one 

 hundred and fifty feet, reaching to within five miles of the 

 Craig, where multitudes of herrmgs and other fish spawn. 

 Further out the water deepens, until it reaches four hundred 

 feet or more. 



With a view of ascertaining whether the particulars 

 furnished to Thompson seventy -three years ago were still 

 accepted as facts at Ballantrae, I made enquiries of various 



