90 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



the ocean ; from thence he presently returns as if 

 he had made a foreign purchase, but it does not 

 pass for such. For the owner had discovered the 

 fact before the thief had got out of sight, and 

 too nimble for his cunning, waits his return all 

 armed with fury and engages him desperately ; 

 this bloody battle was fought above our heads, and 

 proved fatal to the thief, who fell dead so near our 

 boat that our men took him up and presently 

 dressed and eat him, which they reckoned as an 

 omen of good success in the voyage.' 7 



Although we saw plenty of Solan Geese build- 

 ing their nests, we were not treated to anything 

 in the way of examples of petty larceny and 

 bloody justice which seem to have supplied our 

 rather sanguinary -minded old friend Martin with 

 what he frankly calls a " very agreeable diversion." 



Martin says that he made particular inquiry 

 as to how many Solan Geese were killed and eaten 

 in St. Kilda in a year, and found that in a bad 

 season no less than twenty-two thousand five 

 hundred had been caught and consumed. Both the 

 people and the birds appear to have been more 

 numerous then than now r . 



One authority has estimated the number of 

 Gannets breeding on the St. Kilda group of islands 

 at two hundred thousand, and computed their summer 

 consumption of fish at two hundred and fourteen 

 millions, adding that the sight of the birds resting 

 on Stack Lee is " one of the wonders of the world." 



The Solan Geese return to their breeding quarters 

 on Borrera and the adjoining rock stacks in March, 

 about the middle of which month the St. Kildans 

 go forth in their boats to raid the sleeping birds 

 under the cover of darkness. According to Sands, 

 the foray is managed in the following way: " Two 



