GANNETS AS FOOD 463 



that, McCloyd's factor or steward had doubtless been sent 

 from Lewis,* once a year or oftener, to collect some 

 portion of his employer's rent in " Avyld foulis reisted," 

 i.e. dried wild-fowl, a term which probably included 

 Gannets. But a diet for five centuries composed only in 

 part of mutton and meal, and more largely of " wyld 

 foulis " and their eggs, was not unattended with risk 

 to the islanders, who in those days numbered 180,t 

 with no means of salting their sea-fowl, which they merely 

 dried in the sun, and piled under cairns of loose stones. 

 There they lay in all weathers until the winter time, 

 or longer, so Martin tells us, " without salt or pepper " 

 {t.c, p. 80), with the natural result that they soon became 

 insanitary, and in 1684 p. leprosy broke out, from which 

 two families were still suffering at the time of his visit. 

 The practice of salting sea-birds was probably unknown 

 — or if known, not applied for lack of salt — in St. Kilda 

 until the beginning of the nineteenth century- When salting 

 commenced, the stone shelters were discarded for barrels, 

 and the young Gannets, Fulmar Petrels, etc., after bemg 

 carefully plucked and eviscerated, were packed hke fish.J 



* The McLeod who is the present head of the Clan, resides at 

 Dunvegan, Skye. 



•j- In 1911 the census return was males 40, females 40; the population 

 has never been less than 71. 



f'Aiin. Scot. Nat. Hist.," 1905, p. 145; and "St. Kilda," by 

 J. Wiglesworth, p. (57. 



