22O The Naturalist of Cumbrae. 



dark, we never saw a star through the night, and it 

 was often past midnight before we got home. 



" On the night in question we did not leave Papa 

 till near 1 1 p.m. When we got to Scalloway there 

 was a large fire on the green at the back of the town, 

 two women apparently in their night-dresses stirring 

 up in it something like clothes, no one being present 

 but themselves. 



" We could not conjecture what they were burning 

 at that time of night all alone. The scene was 

 exceedingly weird. 



" In the morning we mentioned to our landlady the 

 fire we had seen outside of the town. She said that 

 a bad fever was raging in the town at the time, and 

 that when any died of it all the bedding they had 

 used had to be burned no doubt a wise precaution. 



" We did not get the petrels till after we had left 

 the Shetlands. Mr. Gatherer sent them to us at 

 Kirkwall. We were rather astonished at the number, 

 both of birds and eggs twenty-four of each ; but we 

 were still more astonished at the price -fourpence 

 each, the same for birds as for eggs^sixteen shillings 

 in all. We had left thirty shillings with Mr. Gatherer 

 to pay for them, but we had no idea that there would 

 be anything like the number sent. We learned after- 

 wards, from Mr. Gatherer, that the price they charged 

 us much exceeded what they got from Mr. Dunn of 

 Stromness." 



In the beginning of this expedition Mr. Robertson 

 presents himself in the light of a stern parent, re- 

 buffing the petitions of tiresome children, although, as 

 the narrative proceeds, he seems to spend most of his 



