6 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



on discovering that the whole business was a cruel 

 hoax. 



The St. Kildans had no knowledge of the date 

 of our coming, and the dogs, numbering between 

 thirty and ^ forty, were the first to discover our 

 presence in the bay and tear pell-mell down to 

 the water's edge. The dogs of Hirta which is the 

 Gaelic name of St. Kilda are a distinct feature of 

 the place, and whenever a boat is being launched 

 or hauled in there they all are congregated at the 

 water's edge, engaged in furious barking, which 

 generally ends in a fight, and a bundle of three or 

 four, closely locked together, rolling into the sea. 



As nobody was to be seen, our captain blew 

 the ship's whistle, but although he succeeded in 

 making a prodigious din which echoed and re- 

 echoed amongst the crags, causing the sheep to 

 scamper away up the steep hill-sides, he produced 

 not a sign of human life on the place. After 

 waiting a few minutes, he sent forth another loud 

 blast, which frightened the Kittiwakes off their 

 nests and sent them wheeling like a little snow- 

 cloud across the bay. In a while, a small boy, 

 who was evidently more curious or energetic than 

 the rest of the population, came running down to 

 the shore to gaze at us. Nearly every writer who 

 has visited St. Kilda has noted this seeming in- 

 difference of the natives to the arrival of strangers, 

 and commented upon it. I think that the clean, 

 shining faces, and smooth, glistening hair of the 

 women, and general Sunday appearance of the men, 

 afford an explanation. They are caught in what 

 they consider an unpresentable state, and the time 

 taken up between the arrival of a boat in the bay 

 and the putting off of the natives is occupied in 

 washing and tidying themselves up a bit. 



