156 JOTTINGS ABOUT BIRDS. 



The first impressions of St. Kilda are decidedly 

 disappointing, and the view from the sea suggests 

 that dreary barrenness which is the one dominant 

 feature of the Outer Hebrides. As seen from 

 Village Bay, however, St. Kilda presents a grandly 

 majestic appearance. The deeply indented bay is 

 in the foreground ; on the left is the precipitous 

 island of Doon, looking for the most part bare and 

 rocky, its jagged peaks rising in many places sheer 

 from the water, or sloping gradually in downs of 

 greenest turf. Doon forms the southern horn of 

 the bay, and is only separated from St. Kilda by a 

 very narrow strait, which during certain tides is 

 fordable at low water. At no very remote period 

 this island evidently formed part of the mainland 

 of St. Kilda. Next to Doon, on the mainland, rises 

 the hill Mullach-scaill, or the Bald Top ; then in 

 the background rises mighty Connacher, over- 

 looking all, sloping more or less gradually from the 

 shores of the bay, and falling in a majestic precipice 

 to the open Atlantic on the other ; whilst on the 

 right rises Mullach-oshavall, or the Top of Oswald, 

 forming the northern horn of this remarkably 

 picturesque bay. At the extreme western extremity 

 of St. Kilda is the smaller island of Soay, separated 

 by a narrow strait in which stand three lofty stacks 



