146 A V I E W O F 







The weflern coafts of the continent, particularly 

 the banks of the lakes, are generally fringed with 

 natural woods, rifing beautifully from the ihores, 

 towards the fummits of the mountains* Thefe 

 woods are compofed of oak, chefnut, afh, elder, 

 elm, afpine, hazel, larches, pine, and fir. In 

 fome parts of the interior country upon the river 

 JDee, as Brae Mar, the pines are from ten to twelve 



nations df the feathered kind are taught tochoofe thepropereft habi- 

 tations and feeding places, and to fliift their quarters feafonably, 

 by the unerring hand of God. 



** From the account given above of the multitudes of fea-fowU 

 that leek their food on this coaft, we may juiUy conclude, that there 

 muft be inexhauftible ftores of fiih there. Let us for a moment 

 confine our attention to the confumption made by a fmgle fpecies 

 of fowls. The folan goofe is almoft infatiably voracious ; he flies 

 with great force and velocity, toils all the day with very little in- 

 termifTion, and digefls his food in a very fhort time ; he difdains to 

 eat any thing worfe than herring or mackarel, unlels it be in a very 

 hungry place, which he takes care to avoid or abandon. We mall 

 take it for granted, that there are 100,000 of that kind around the 

 rocks of St. Kikla j and this calculation is by far too moderate, as 

 no lefs than 20,000 of this kind are defkoyed every year, including 

 the young ones. We fliall fuppofe, at the fame time, that the folan 

 geefe fojourn in thefe leas for about feven months of the year ; that 

 each of them deftroys five herrings in a day ; a fubfiftence infinitely 

 poor for fo greedy a creature, unlels it were more than half ftip- 

 ported at theexpence of other fifties. Here we have 100,000,000 

 of the fineft filh in the world devoured annually by a fmgle Ipecies 

 of the St. Kildafea-fowls. 



" If in the next place it be confidered, that much the greatest 

 part of the other tribes have much the fame appetite for herring, 

 and purfue it from place to place, in the feveral migrations it makes 

 from one fea to another^ the confumption muft be prodigioufly 

 great. Taking thefe into the account, and allowing them the fame 

 quantity of food, and of the fame kind, by reafon of their vaft fu- 

 periority in point of numbers, though their ftomachs are confider- 

 ably weaker ; we fee there are no lefs than 200,000,000 of her- 

 rings fwallowed up every year by the birds of a very fmall diftriift 

 of rocks, which occupy fo inconfiderable a fpace in the Ducale- 

 donian ocean. 



" Should all the articles of this account be fuftained, articles 

 which feem no lefs juft than plain, and mould our curioiity lead us 

 into a new calculation, allowing between fix and feven hundred 

 to every barrel, it is evident that more than 330,000 barrels are 

 annually carried away by fuch creatures. " 



feet 



