GANNETS AS FOOD 460 



and his father being a trader south and north, sought all 

 phisicians a,nd doctors with whom he hade occasion to 

 meet, but all was in vain. Yet in three weeks tyme, being 

 my hous, was perfethe whole be applying the forsaid oyle. 

 The way they make it is — they put the grease and fatt 

 into the great gutt of the fowll [the expandable proven- 

 triculus of the Gannet], and so it is hung within a hous 

 untill it run in oyle." * 



Melted Gannets' grease must have been almost equivalent 

 to a fish oil, and probably posse ssed seme of the properties of 

 cod- liver oil ; its medicinal value for outward application, 

 therefore, need not necessarily have been groundless. 



Use Made of the Feathers. — But the commodities afforded 

 by the Gannets did not end here, for their feathers were 

 good enough for cheap pillows, cushions, and feather-beds. 

 Possibly thoy had not the softness and lightness of feathers 

 from the domestic Goose, l)ut they possessed elasticity, and 

 did not mat too easily. It was the young Gannets" feathers 

 \\hich were used for beds, but all agree that whether from 

 yoimg or old, their retention of a strong scent was so great 



* " Description of the Lews " by John Morisone, as given in Tho Royal 

 Physical Soc, Edinburgh, "Trans.," 1883-5, p. 58, and from there quoted 

 in " A Fauna of the Outer Hebrides," p. xl. Mr. Eagle Clarke informs 

 me that the stomach of a Gannet is still a favourite receptacle at St. Kilda 

 for the storage of Fulmar oil, and that as recently as September, 191 1. ho 

 saw a number of these skin bottles on the island, thus employed. 



