FEBRUARY 1902. 



PIERCING cold weather here of late, with a good deal of frost 

 and occasional snow showers. No matter how heavy the 

 snowfall may be here we only see it falling, as it does not lie 

 long round our doors, and only when our gaze is directed 

 Arbroath wards which, you may be sure, is not seldom are 

 we reminded of its occurrence. The close of last month saw 

 our barometer taxed to its utmost intelligence, and though 

 a tenth higher would have seen its limit, nothing of a 

 phenomenal nature was noted. The solan geese or gannets, 

 which are pretty much in evidence here during the breeding 

 season, foraging for their families on the Bass Rock, gradually 

 disappeared, till during the month of November not one was 

 to be seen. A solitary one was seen in the first week of 

 December, and since then the number sighted has gradually 

 increased, till in the middle of the present month, as many as 

 eight in one string were counted winging their way southward. 

 The Bass Rock, Ailsa Craig, and the outlying stacks of lonely 

 St Kilda, are said to be the only breeding places of these birds 

 in Scotland. At the beginning of the past century they were 

 considered a dainty article of food by the Edinburgh gentry, 

 and the Bass Rock was rented for the purpose of supplying 

 the market, the birds selling at the rate of half-a-crown 

 a-piece. I have seen it stated that the modus operandi of 

 these birds when engaged in fishing is to flit along the surface 

 till fish are sighted, when they rise to a high altitude, close 

 their wings, and drop hawk-like on their prey. This, I 

 venture to think, is scarcely correct. My experience is that 

 when flitting near the surface if fish are sighted they are 

 invariably struck at without rising to a higher elevation. It 

 is a well known fact that objects under water are more easily 



