NEA11ING ST. KILDA. 3 



navigators, on the top of which a pair of great 

 Black- Backed Gulls had made their nest and laid 

 three eggs the previous year. 



When we got clear of the Hebrides, and were 

 fairly launched upon the bosom of the mighty 

 Atlantic, the waves began to make themselves felt, 

 and to render the after- deck uninhabitable except 

 for such as could don oilskins. By-and-by the 

 Hiaskers loomed black and weird on our port. 

 We were told that these rocks are visited in October 

 by fishermen in order to kill Seals and extract the 

 oil from their bodies. 



Towards noon the weather thickened consider- 

 ably, and a drizzling rain commenced to fall. 

 The steamer was now rolling and pitching to 

 such an extent that most of her passengers lost 

 all interest in wallowing Porpoises and plunging 

 Gannets, and experienced those unpleasant sensa- 

 tions which for a time rob all natural objects of 

 their charm. 



When we must have been quite twenty miles 

 away from St. Kilda, I noticed a couple of dead 

 Kittiwakes float past the ship, and directly after- 

 wards my friend Mackenzie pointed out a Fulmar 

 Petrel flying along on our starboard. The bird is 

 easily distinguished from the Gulls by its astonish- 

 ingly graceful gliding flight. It seems literally 

 to slide over the crests and through the hollows 

 between the waves. I many times thought that the 

 curling crest of a breaker must overwhelm one that 

 was flying towards it ; but the billow was topped 

 without a wing flap, and with the utmost grace 

 and ease. 



Speculation was rife amongst such of the pas- 

 sengers as were well enough to be on deck as to 

 the distance and direction of our gonl. I knew that 



