A VISIT TO ST. KILDA. 169 



I believe) our head-quarters, which after a thorough 

 overhaul and cleaning up was at last made habitable. 

 Its great drawbacks, however, were damp and Pulex 

 irritans, the former endowing me with rheumatics, 

 from which I have never since been free, and the 

 latter making indoor life a burden, especially at 

 night. To hear the chanting song of the St. 

 Kilda men outside our door, however, made 

 ample amends for our discomfiture, to say nothing 

 of the Fulmars, the Fork-tailed Petrels, and the 

 Peregrines ! In about, ten days' time a pleasure 

 steamer, the Dunara Castle, from Glasgow, 

 arrived, in which I left St. Kilda with many regrets 

 and leave-takings tinged with sadness, for the 

 people of the place had shown me every kindness, 

 and done all in their power to render my stay 

 amongst them as profitable as it had been pleasur- 

 able. Before finally leaving St. Kilda, the steamer 

 made a circuit of the islands, firing a small cannon 

 at intervals to scare the birds from the cliffs. The 

 wild grandeur and picturesqueness of St. Kilda and 

 its neighbouring isles can only be seen to advantage 

 from the water ; then the endless variety of form 

 and colour which their impressive headlands and 

 lofty cliffs assume may be viewed in all their lonely 

 sublimity, the scene being constantly vignetted in 



