EGGS: THEIR PRESERVATION. 107 



Cooks say they answer their purpose : 'but it is assuredly worth 

 while to try for something better. 



Reaumur's experiments with varnish, so well known through 

 the industry of compilers, appear to have succeeded. But 

 varnished Eggs would be both too troublesome and too ex- 

 pensive to be the subject of more than mere experiment. The 

 best way of obtaining a practical result is to inquire what me- 

 thod is pursued by any set of people to whom preserved Eggs 

 are a matter of necessity, not luxury. Now there exists a 

 tribe of men, British subjects, whose daily food, whose staff of 

 life, is Fowls and Eggs both preserved during great part of 

 the year. In maps of the Ancient World, the orbis veteribus 

 notus, w"e see nations marked down as Ichthyophagi, Fish- 

 eaters, Lotophagi, Lotus-eaters; and a new race, peculiar to 

 the present day, appears to be springing up, the Mycophagi, or 

 Fungus-eaters, who will be wise if they listen to the warnings 

 of Dr. Lindley. Had the people of St. Kilda been known in 

 those days, they would have been styled Ornithophagi, Bird- 

 eaters, and Oophagi, Egg-eaters. Instead of their keeping 

 Fowls, the Fowls keep them. Martin, in his voyage to the 

 Island of St. Kilda, (London MDCXCVIII.) says, " I remember 

 the allowance of each Man per diem, besides a Barley Cake, was 

 eighteen of the Eggs laid by the Fowl called by them Lavy* 

 and a greater number of the lesser Eggs, as they differ in pro- 

 portion ; the largest of these Eggs is near in bigness to that of 

 a Goose, the rest of the Eggs gradually of a lesser Size. We 

 had the curiosity, after Three Weeks' residence, to make a Cal- 

 cule of the number of Eggs bestowed upon those of our Boat, 



* Subsequently he says, " The Lavy, so called by the inhabitants 

 of St. Kilda ; by the Welch, a Guillem ; it comes near to the bigness 

 of a Duck; its head, upper-side of the Neck all downwards, of a 

 dark-Brown, and White Breast, the Bill strait and sharp pointed ; 

 the upper Chop hangs over the lower ; its Feet and Claws are Black." 



