122 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



blue mementoes of Soa from various parts of my 

 body. I now learned from Mr. Young the origin 

 of the heated debate which I had feared would 

 end in sanguinary warfare. The Commonwealth 

 had suffered a loss. In our absence the boat had 

 tumbled about to such an extent that the boy had 

 become sea-sick ; the poor fellow had been violently 

 pitched from one side of the craft to the other, 

 and falling on one of the great clumsy oars had 

 broken its ample timbers right in two. 



We now pulled away through the Straits divid- 

 ing Soa from St. Kilda, and I shall never forget 

 the magnificent sight of the waves at this point. 

 They rolled in from the open Atlantic like great 

 green monsters, each more anxious than the rest to 

 engulf us and our frail barque. There was consid- 

 erable doubt whether we should ever fetch Village 

 Bay that night with only three oars, and the men 

 proposed to land us at the bottom of the Glen in 

 order that we might walk home ; but I don't think 

 anybody cared to try that course when they saw 

 the great white sea-horses leaping upon the rocks 

 in that quarter, so we rowed slowly past. 



When just beneath the towering face of Conagher 

 I observed a Guillemot of peculiar plumage in the 

 sea; and as Mr. Young thought it would be an 

 interesting acquisition to a provincial museum in 

 which he was interested, we consulted the natives 

 upon the subject of frightening the birds, and, 

 after gaining their unanimous consent, the factor 

 raised his gun and fired. The shot brought about 

 one of the grandest scenes of bird-life I have ever 

 seen or expect to see again. The air was instantly 

 filled with a vast multitude of birds, the noise of 

 whose countless wings was like the low rumbling 

 sound of distant thunder. From the topmost ledges 



