IN THE HIGHLANDS 85 



and in the midst of a frightful hurricane reached Harris 

 in nine hours, thankfully wondering that their existence 

 was thus preserved. It was the same storm which on 

 the east coast destroyed so many of the Caithness herring 

 fleet with their crews. 



" Besides St. Kilda itself, there are three other islands 

 and the two ' Stacks." Two of the islands, the Dun and 

 Soa, almost join, but the third, Borrera, is near the 

 Stacks of the solan-geese, which are about five miles off. 

 Nearly all the male inhabitants of the island were as- 

 sembled to meet us when we landed, and well might they 

 welcome us, for they had not seen a creature but them- 

 selves for nine long months, and they were very anxious 

 for news from Australia about their friends who had 

 emigrated the previous autumn. Eight families con- 

 taining thirty-six souls had then gone. Only fifteen 

 heads of families remained, the population now being 

 but sixty persons. Formerly it was always about one 

 hundred, but it never materially increased, and this was 

 owing to the mortality of the infants, the greater part 

 of whom die at the early age of five or six days, owing, 

 it is supposed by medical men, to the heat and dirt in 

 which the child is kept and the want of proper washing 

 and attending to . The poor parents themselves attribute 

 it to no human cause, and calmly say that it is the will 

 of God. In no family are there more than six children. 

 Generally there are not above one or two. I saw one 

 little boy who was the only child left out of fourteen 

 who were born to his parents. The oldest man in the 

 island was fifty-seven, but there was one old woman 

 nearly eighty. 



