92 A HUNDRED YEARS 



this rope that the fulmar-hunter descends, letting 

 the rope slip through his hands as a sailor does. They 

 are very expert in killing the birds by breaking their 

 necks in an instant, and as the fulmars are killed they 

 are tucked into the waist rope. When many are taken 

 they are tied together to the end of the loose rope, the 

 bird-catcher meantime standing on a ledge, and they are 

 drawn up to the top. It is said that the fulmar lays 

 but one egg, and if this be taken she does not lay again 

 that year. It was from the face of Conacadh that we 

 saw them descend for the fulmars. One, a little boy 

 apparently not more than twelve years of age, was 

 let down by his father. They all say the same Gaelic 

 words, Leig leatha {' Let her go,' meaning ' Let out the 

 rope '), in going down. They use their feet much in 

 descending, and go, as it were, by starts and bounds. 

 They seem to have no fear, though so many have been 

 killed on the rocks. 



" The puffins, or sea-parrots, are very numerous, but 

 are chiefly caught by the dogs under the stones or cairns 

 or by snares. They are very plentiful on the Dun, and 

 where they build the grass is beautiful. The dogs appear 

 to be of a small, lean, mongrel kind of collie dog. There 

 seem to be numbers of them, and some I saw at the 

 houses had a rope round their neck and one foreleg 

 passed through it to prevent them running far away. 



" The people have no means of killing the eider- 

 ducks, as they have no gun on the island. Osgood and 

 George Ross went after them on Friday and killed be- 

 tween them three drakes. Osgood killed one positively 

 and another doubtfully. Two other drakes were killed 



