CHAPTER XXXIV 



AUTUMN IN THE WESTERN HIGHLANDS 

 I . SEPTEMBER 



THROUGHOUT the whole of September an unsettled type 

 of weather conditions prevailed. The month was ushered 

 in with a gale from the west and a heavy sea, and strong 

 winds from every quarter continued almost uninterruptedly 

 till the closing days of the month. The harvest was late on 

 the West Coast, though the crop as a rule was excellent, 

 and it was not until the end of the month that the bulk of it 

 was secured. 



During September solan geese were more plentiful 

 around the sea lochs than at any time during the summer, 

 and on the i8th, during an exceptionally heavy gale from 

 the north-west, I noticed them fishing in a little land-locked 

 bay, into which they do not venture under ordinary con- 

 ditions. 



In the first fortnight of the month many sea birds were 

 migrating. I saw flocks of kittiwakes far out to sea, wheel- 

 ing and fluttering above the waves, and strikingly white did 

 they look as the sunlight glanced on their plumage, con- 

 trasting strongly with the dark blue of the waters beneath 

 them. Great shearwaters, with their lesser brethren the 

 Manx shearwaters, were going south about this time, and 

 a few fulmar petrels were to be seen. Flocks of phalaropes, 

 with swift, swallow-like flight and twittering cries, were 

 also on migration. A certain number of grey crows visited 

 us at this time, though the flood of their migration strikes 

 rather the East Coast than the West. But then on the 

 West Coast there is always a large resident population of 

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