188 ST. HILDA FROM WITHOUT 



with which fish are gifted. A shoal of small fry of some 

 kind had found its way in, and was moving about the 

 harbour with the usual escort, coming every now and 

 then within a few yards of the ship's sides. 



Great fish glistening like silver, doubling in loops 

 (heads and tails almost touching), were in the air 

 together, six or seven at a time, mixing in wild con- 

 fusion, and changing elements with screaming Gulls, 

 Gannets, and Terns, which dropped like stones into 

 the sea, while a Black Guillemot, keeping well clear 

 of the ruck, dived in and out, his carmine legs flash- 

 ing, and popped up time after time with a little fish 

 in his beak, till the wonder was how he could possibly 

 swallow another. In the height of the excitement a 

 porpoise, puffing and wheezing like an asthmatic old 

 gentleman in a hurry to catch a train, bustled up, 

 passing within ten yards of us, to join the fun. 



In the Ninth Report of the Fishery Board for 

 Scotland, presented to Parliament in 1891, is a Report 

 on the Comparative Fecundity of Fishes, by Dr. 

 Wemyss Fulton, which gives some figures which make 

 it easier to understand how it is that, with so many 

 enemies to contend with, any little fish live to grow up. 



A single ling, which seems to be the most prolific 

 of the many kinds reported upon, can, it has been 

 proved, produce from 20,000,000 to 30,000,000 eggs in 

 one season. 



With such a record to head the list, such paltry 

 clutches as 47,466 for a herring, and 806,459 for a 

 haddock, seem too insignificant to be worth mentioning. 



