ST. KILDA MAIL BOAT. 29 



bottle containing a letter and request that whoso- 

 ever picks it up will post it to its destination (a 

 penny being enclosed in the boat for that purpose), 

 they nail a lid or hatch over the cavity, with the 

 letters of the words " Please open" crudely cut on 

 the top of it. To the boat is attached a bladder 

 made from a sheep's skin, and the whole is cast 

 into the sea during the prevalence of a westerly 

 wind. I was assured that an average of four out 

 of six of these interesting little mailboats are 

 picked up either on the shores of Long Island or 

 Norway, and their contents forwarded to the people 

 whose hands they are intended to reach. Such as 

 find their way to the Norwegian coast are sent to 

 the Foreign Office in London, from which venerable 

 institution they emerge again in due course, accom- 

 panied by an official document often exceeding them 

 many times in length. I was so much interested 

 in these miniature mailboats that I got a man who 

 was accustomed to make them to construct one for 

 me absolutely complete in every particular. I had 

 it put in the sea so as to observe its behaviour, 

 and in order that my brother might have an op- 

 portunity of photographing the man in the act of 

 despatching it. 



As I had expressed a desire to hear from the 

 St. Kildans during the winter by means of one of 

 their miniature mailboats, they dispatched one con- 

 taining three letters for me at eleven o'clock on the 

 morning of March 24th, during the prevalence of 

 a north-westerly wind. On the 31st of the same 

 month it was picked up by a shepherd in a little 

 bay at Vallay, North Uist, and its contents for- 

 warded to me by post. The letters had been 

 placed in a small tin canister, and despite the fact 

 tli at they had become soaked with sea water, they 



