THE HOME OF THE SHEARWATER 31 



food with us, in case we did not wish to live on sea-fowl ; 

 we ignored the advice, and found abundance; it was a 

 land of home-cured bacon, eggs, milk, fish, lobsters and 

 crabs; vegetables and new potatoes were waiting to be 

 eaten, the gooseberries ripe for pies. We lacked nothing 

 needful. 



There was, perhaps is, a king of Bardsey, an hereditary 

 monarch without a constitution. No one disputes his 

 right to the title of to the gilded metal crown adorned 

 with the Newborough arms ; no one obeys his commands, 

 for he, wise man, gives no orders. The king, when we 

 saw him, had no heir ; indeed there are few children now 

 on the island. "The oldest die first" still; what will 

 happen when the present generation, now well advanced 

 in years, joins the 20,000 which have gone before ? When 

 we landed we found few people about, but leaint that 

 they were all up in the mountain, " taking the wools 

 from the sheeps " ; when they descended they were all 

 middle-aged folk, the only children were aliens, the family 

 of the light-keepers. The fishermen and farmers of 

 Bardsey, though so few in number, have no communistic 

 " parliament " like the crofters of St. Kilda; every man 

 is independent. As sailors and fishermen, too, they are 

 far ahead of the St. Kildians, and are out in all weathers 

 to visit lobster-pots and long lines, often starting at night ; 

 " there is plenty of time to sleep in winter," our host 

 explained. 



We may divide Bardsey roughly into a cultivated and 

 uncultivated portion, though mountain sheep graze over 

 the rocky upland which makes the island so conspicuous 

 from the towns in Cardigan Bay. The low-lying land 

 to the west of the " mountain " is cut up into fields, 

 bounded by low turf walls, wonderfully cushioned with 

 pink masses of thrift in mid- June when we were there. 

 The cattle, mostly black, occupy some fields and are 



6 



