IN THE HIGHLANDS 93 



afterwards. They are very beautiful large birds with 

 much white in their plumage, the top of the head velvet 

 black, and a pea-green colour at the back of the neck. 

 The duck is of a handsome, dark, mottled brown plumage, 

 something in colour like a grey hen. The eggs are large 

 and of a light opaque-looking green. It was in the 

 East Bay that we saw the eiders, perhaps a dozen or 

 twenty pairs. The people said they were getting much 

 more plentiful on the other side, between Soa and the 

 Dun. Their nests are composed entirely of the softest 

 down, which in Norway is collected in such quantities for 

 pillows and quilts. 



" The solan-geese build on the two Stacks, Stac an 

 Armuin and Stac an Ligh. We went to the latter on 

 the Friday in the afternoon, about three o'clock. I 

 ordered the only boat in the island. It is large and 

 heavy, with mast and sail and eight oars. It is used 

 for going to the Stacks and to Borrera and Soa, and also 

 generally once a year, about Whit-Sunday, a party of 

 the natives go over in it to Harris to purchase little 

 things and to hear the news. Osgood and I had gone to 

 the Jessie for our luncheon, and when the big boat 

 came alongside there were no fewer than nineteen persons 

 in it. We sent nine of them on shore, taking ten 

 St. Kilda men and six of our own men with us. The 

 Stacks are a good five miles away from the main island, 

 and though the day was fine there was a pretty heavy 

 roll. The whole of the way the ten St. Kilda men kept 

 singing a sort of song at the pitch of their voices, the 

 refrain of which consisted of the following words of 

 encouragement in their rather funny St. Kilda Gaelic: 



