6V. Kildafrom Without. 101 



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 

 confusion, 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 

 flashing, 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. Wemys 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 men- 

 tioning. 



It was once calculated by Mr. James Wilson, the 

 ornithologist, that the Solan Geese, breeding in the 

 colonies of St. Kilda, alone must devour every year 

 something like 214,000,000 fish. 



At eight o'clock on Sunday night the cone was still 

 up ; but, as there was still but little wind, the anchor 



