462 THE GANNET 



in all cases the consumers knew what they were eating is 

 doubtful. Gannets were generally called Geese at the Bass 

 Rock, and as Scotch Geese they might easily be palmed olf on 

 the unsuspecting English customer. Others were hawked 

 about the country-side in carts, fresh as well as salted, or 

 retailed at various Lothian markets to anyone who would 

 buy them. Plucked and cooked, they were retailed at lOd. 

 each ; plucked and raw, with the insides filled out with 

 straw, at 6d. Great must have been the labour of the 

 plucking, chiefly done by women, of whom Mr. Kendal 

 told me he employed five ; and dense must have been the 

 cloud of feathers in which these worthy dames sat at 

 their work, for which they were paid eighteenpence a day. 



At the present day no one eats Gannets from the Bass, 

 and the young leave the cliffs unmolested, being no longer 

 deemed fit for human food. 



At St. Kilda. — In this remote island of the Hebrides, 

 formerly known as Hirtha, Gannets must have been freely 

 eaten ever since the islanders, who were certainly estab- 

 lished there in the fourteenth century, possessed a boat 

 to take them to Borrera and Stack Lii, for no Gannets 

 breed on St. Kilda proper. We first hear of sea-birds 

 being used here for food in 1549.* But long prior to 



* See p. 117. 



