IN THE HIGHLANDS 91 



where in the island, and the poor people are obliged to 

 burn the green turf, which they cut and dry and put 

 into little stone buildings with great trouble and 

 care. 



" The bird that is most esteemed amongst the natives 

 for its flesh and feathers is the fulmar. It much re- 

 sembles the herring-gull, but has no black tips to its 

 wings, which, along with the back, are of a French 

 grey, the head, throat, and breast a pure white. They 

 belong to the petrel tribe of birds, and have a bill, curved 

 at the point, which is yellow, and nostrils in a tube which 

 has only one external hole. They have a great many 

 soft and rather long feathers, and skim along the air 

 noiselessly. They are very tame, and when we were 

 rowing they passed close over our heads. None of our 

 party shot at them, for fear of vexing the people. They 

 did not mind the other birds being fired at. The fulmar 

 builds on the grassy ledges of the highest and most 

 precipitous rocks, some twelve hundred feet high. They 

 lay but one egg, which is white and larger than a very 

 large hen's egg and quite oval. The St. Kilda folk 

 catch these birds with a noose made of horse-hair and 

 fastened to a stick like a short fishing-rod. Near the 

 ends it is rendered stiffer by pieces of the shafts of 

 the solan-goose's feathers plaited amongst the horse- 

 hair. The man who is to descend the rock has two ropes, 

 one of which is fastened round his waist and the end 

 held in the hands of his companion, who stands on the 

 top of the rock. The other rope is in under the foot of 

 the man above, who plants his heel firmly on it in a sort 

 of hollow he has made for the purpose, and it is with 



