CHAPTER XIX. 



GANNETS AS FOOD. 



The Uses to which Gannets have been put — Gannets as 

 Food — Their Eggs Eaten — Their Grease Employed as a 

 Medical Unguent, and afterwards as a Lubricant for Machinery 

 — ^Their Feathers used for Beds. 



The Uses to tvhich Gannets have been put. — The uses to 

 which Gannets have been applied are manifold. In the 

 first place, they have in the past been largely employed 

 for food, and for that purpose it was legitimate enough 

 to kill them — especially at St. Kilda, where at one time 

 the inliabitants lived on little else than sea-birds, which 

 they harvested in summer, and preserved in stone cairns. 

 Then they had a value for their grease, which was 

 formerly on account of its supposed curative virtues, 

 and lastly their feathers were turned to account. But all 

 these ways of putting them to man's use have practically 

 ceased now, so far as the British Isles are concerned, 

 whatever may be the case in Iceland. 



Method of Taking Young Gannets The usual mode of harvesting 



the young Gannets was the same at the Bass Rock as elsewhere. It was 

 simple enough, but dangerous. One or two bold cragsnaen liad to creep 



