IN THE HIGHLANDS 71 



if one feels something extra strong on a long line, which 

 might be a halibut, the name Bradan leathan or halibut 

 must never be uttered until the monster is safe at the 

 bottom of the boat, otherwise it is certain to escape ! 



The natives of Leumrabhaigh told us they made 

 expeditions to the Shiant Islands for puffins, and brought 

 back boatloads of them because they valued the feathers. 

 They also enjoyed big pots of boiled puffins for their 

 dinners as a welcome change from the usual fish diet. 

 They told us how they slaughter the puffins. They 

 choose a day when there is a strong breeze blowing 

 against the steep braes where the puffiins breed, and the 

 lads then lie on their backs on these nearly perpendicular 

 slopes holding the butt-ends of their fishing-rods. These 

 stiff rods would be about nine or ten feet long. Holding 

 them with both hands, they whack at the puffins as they 

 fly past them quite low in their tens of thousands, and 

 whether the puffin is killed outright or only stunned he 

 rolls down the hill and tumbles on the shore or into the 

 sea, where the rest of the crew are kept busily employed 

 gathering them into the boat. 



The puffin-killing reminded me of the way I used to 

 get hauls of rock-pigeons in a cave at night on the wild 

 rocky coast beyond the crofter township of Mellon 

 Charles, and actually in sight of the Shiant Islands. 

 There are a number of caves which used to be well 

 stocked with rock pigeons in the sixties and seventies, 

 and one of them had comparatively smooth sides with 

 a square mouth. Just before dark we used to drive the 

 pigeons from the other caves into this one, which we 

 called the netting cave, and then, when it was pitch 



