FULMAR PETREL. 501 



round the waists of the heavier party, whilst the other and lighter 

 party are let down the perpendicular rock several hundred feet. 

 Here the work of destruction goes on night and day for a given 

 space; the St. Kilda man has nothing to do but take the young 

 Fulmer, wring his neck, and then suspend him by a girth which 

 he wears round his loins ; his neighbour looks on with unconcern, 

 and allows the same experiment upon his neck. When the person 

 of the man is overloaded he forms a parcel, which he lays to a side, 

 and resumes. This is the harvest of the people of St. Kilda. 

 They are aware it is to last only eight days, and therefore sleep 

 itself is banished for this space, seeing that the millions that may 

 be left to see the eighth day after the 12th, are sure to be off to 

 their own fairy world for a season. The number killed in this one 

 week may be from eighteen to twenty thousand. They are from 

 two to three pounds weight; about two hundred will go to fill 

 a herring-barrel; yet each family, after serving the poor, shall have 

 from four to five barrels salted for winter use." * 



At page 11 of the same curious work the difficulties encountered 

 by the more adventurous of the Hirta climbers while attacking 

 the Fulmar in its strongest fortress are thus alluded to : " The 

 staca-biorrach, or pointed, or pyramidical rock, lying betwixt So'a 

 and St. Kilda, is the test of a St. Kilda hero. As for fighting 

 or striking, not a single instance of the kind has occurred for 

 eight years. On the summit of this rock, which is flattish, the 

 Fulmer reigns secure. The rope here is of little avail. The people, 

 however, climb it occasionally, as sweeps do St. Paul's in London, 

 by way of a feat. The man who cannot perform it, never gets a 

 wife in St. Kilda. It is from 400 to 500 feet high. There were 

 just two individuals up since Mr M'Kenzie (the resident clergyman) 

 went to the island eight years ago. They did it to shew their 

 dexterity to an Englishman, and for a quid of tobacco (?). Mr 

 M'Kenzie, who was present, says that the attempt was fearful. 

 When they got up, however, they committed tremendous havoc 

 among the secure Fulmer, etc.; these they tied in immense 

 bundles which they flung down into the sea : the parcels rebounded 

 several fathoms, as if threatening to regain the summit, creating 

 at the same time a cloud of blood which, when it fell, crimsoned 

 the sea as if the * second angel' had sounded." A very alarming 



* Sketches of St. Kilda, and journal of excursion thither. By L. MacLean, 

 author of Adam and Eve, etc. Glasgow : 1838. 



