8i8 



THE NATURE BOOK 



the gull pauses an instant in its flight, 

 and the disgorged fish falls shimmering 

 to the sea. Swift as a hawk the Skua 

 stoops with half-closed wings, overtakes 

 and seizes his ill-gotten meal before 

 it reaches the water, then with leisurely 

 flight he wings his way back to the island 

 mountain, looming purple on the horizon. 

 A " sixern " boat, a veritable model of 

 the old Mking shij)s, manned by a blue- 



AN EXTRAORDINAl .; , ,...-, 



TWO IS THE USUAL NUMBKK. 



eyed, fair-haired crew, whose names 

 bespeak their Norse origin, is the sole 

 connecting hnk between the island of 

 Foula and the mainland of Shetland and 

 civilisation. Weekly in summer, and 

 fortnightly in winter, weather permitting, 

 it crosses the fourteen miles of perilous 

 tide-race to the township of Walls, 

 carrying the mails and fetching a slender 

 supply of provisions or an occasional 

 passenger. The seas run mountains high 

 whenever the breeze backs against the 

 tide, but fortunately the seamanship 

 of the old Vikings has descended with 

 their blood, and the boat rides hghtly 

 as a gull. On opening Vaila Sound 

 Foula comes into view, purple with 

 distance, its fantastic contour cleaving 

 the sky as with mammoth teeth, or else 

 wreathed in cloud as though to hide 



the spot where, more than a thousand 

 feet above the sea, the Great Skua has 

 made its home. 



Imagine an island, roughly pear-shaped, 

 some three miles long and rather more 

 than two wide, which boasts three moun- 

 tain peaks all more than 1,200 feet high, 

 yet rising so abruptly that their base is 

 not co-extensive with the coast. Along 

 the eastern side there is a strip of com- 

 parativ'cly flat, low- 

 lying land, gradually 

 increasing in width till 

 it includes the whole 

 southern tail with the 

 exception of the Noup, 

 a sugar-loaf hill 800 

 feet high. Approach- 

 ing the west coast from 

 the north the chffs rise 

 rapidly, till they form 

 one mighty rampart 

 where for a mile there 

 is scarcely a point less 

 than 700 feet high, the 

 whole culminating in 

 the Kame, the highest 

 cliff in Great Britain, 

 which falls sheer, with 

 but one slight break, 

 more than 1,200 feet 

 into the Atlantic. 

 " People the whole with 



,, , ^ . ,,,,, vast colonies of kitti- 



wakes and armies of 

 guillemots, cover the 

 slopes with puffins and razorbills, dis- 

 tinguish the fulmar amidst the flocks 

 of herr ng and lesser black-backed gulls 

 by its indescribably graceful flight, search 

 the lower benches for colonies of cor- 

 morants and the caves for the shag, 

 and then perhaps you have some slight 

 idea of the kingdom of sea-fowl which 

 the Skua rules with tyrannical might. 

 Here Nature works out her own prob- 

 lems undisturbed, for man is powerless 

 to interfere. On these same cliffs the 

 peregrines rear their young on the sea- 

 birds' flesh, and the raven has its home 

 where no human eye has ever penetrated ; 

 but these are, as it were, accessories, 

 accidents ; it is the Skua, the buccaneer 

 of the air, which dominates the whole and 

 embodies the spirit of the island in his 

 fierce, untamable character. 





