54 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



gathering or fowling intent, the owner for the fire- 

 making tools were private property used to levy an 

 impost, called a " fire penny tax," of three eggs 

 or one fowl from each man for striking a light. 

 Our author, however, destroyed the value of this 

 secret, and astonished the natives by showing them 

 how to get a light by striking the blades of their 

 pocket knives against a piece of " chrystal growing 

 under the rocks." 



They also had to pay a similar tax to the man who 

 took his cooking-pot to these isles for general use. 



Amongst other curious traditions rife among the 

 natives is one to the effect that two men, named 

 Dugan and Ferchar, whilst pulling heather for fuel 

 on Oisaval, plotted a diabolical scheme to murder 

 the whole of the inhabitants at one fell stroke. 

 They rushed down the steep hillside and gave the 

 alarm of an approaching fleet of warships, and as 

 soon as all the people had assembled in the church 

 for safety the two dastards set fire to a quantity of 

 dry heather which they had placed against the 

 closed door and smothered every soul except one 

 old woman, who escaped by stealth to the rocks, 

 where she managed to eke out an existence until 

 the steward's avenging boat came the following 

 spring, when she crept forth, to the surprise of the 

 murderers, and divulged their black crime. Ferchar 

 was placed on a rock-stack near Borrera to live 

 on such birds as he could catch, or starve, but he 

 chose to end his miserable career by flinging himself 

 into the sea immediately after the boat that left 

 him rowed away. His fellow-culprit, Dugan, was 

 placed on Soa, where his bleached bones, and a 

 dirk stuck in the ground beside them, were after- 

 wards found in the cave represented in our picture, 

 which is known to this day as Dugan's Cave. 



