176 AN ISLAND PARADISE 



field of investigation to any one who will have the 

 diligence to work it. 



Aquatic birds seem to be particularly subject to 

 persecution from parasites, especially the great crested 

 grebe, which, when neither feeding nor sleeping, spends 

 most of its time scratching, washing itself, and digging 

 among its feathers with its beak. 



XLIII 



Of the multitude of pleasure-seekers who at the 

 An island present season are distributed over Scotland, 

 Paradise a l ar g e proportion derive no small part of 

 their enjoyment from the scenery of that country ; but 

 probably a very small percentage care to consider how 

 that scenery was formed, and what agencies have been 

 at work to give the land its present appearance. To 

 those who have not experienced the enhanced enjoy- 

 ment to be derived from a general understanding of 

 the growth of landscape, let me commend Sir Archibald 

 Geikie's fascinating volume on The Scenery of Scotland, 

 whereof a third edition was published in 1901. It is 

 a book admirably fulfilling the purpose with which it 

 was written, namely, to make readers of ordinary 

 intelligence acquainted with the origin of hill and 

 dale, plain and shore, and to give them an insight of 

 the result of scientific research in which they may not 

 have the time or inclination to take part. Though Sir 

 Archibald confines himself in this book to the scenery 

 of his native land, the agencies which he explains are 

 at work in land sculpture all over the globe. One of 



