292 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



over again witli good grass and sea-pink mounds. There 

 appears to be about 9 inches of good mould, and what in a 

 good season would be quite a luxuriant growth of grasses. 

 At a little distance from the houses the turf had been cut off 

 the surface for fuel or for building purposes — a custom also 

 adopted by natives of St Kilda. Here the surface wounds 

 soon heal up, and become covered with grasses, but in St 

 Kilda the contrary is the case, and often the denuded patches 

 do not again bear any turf covering. From the whole 

 southern slope, loose stones have been gathered off, and these 

 now stand in cairns here and there, affording shelter and 

 nesting ground for a few pairs of wheatears. 



Leaving the high south hill of Eona, we descended the 

 steeper slope on the north side, above the place where our 

 boat had been pulled up on the rocks. Tlie dirt and the heat, 

 and the petrel oil which the birds freely administered to us, 

 made us extremely glad to have a long pull at Silvers' water- 

 bottle. Coming down the slope, I endeavoured to take a 

 rough outline of the low north promontory of Eona, which I 

 have preserved in my journals, but think it hardly worthy 

 of reproduction here. But time was flying, and we were a 

 long way off, in a crazy ship, with a falling barometer. The 

 northern end, so far as we had time to get over about one- 

 half of it in inspection, is colonised by large numbers of 

 Puffins, which nestle amongst a great quantity of loose shingly 

 stones lodged in two distinct tiers, one along the highest or 

 westward cliff tops, the other just above the solid rocks on 

 the lower sloping east side. Lower, on the hard, rocky pro- 

 montories, or on the rocky shores just below the Puffin colony, 

 large numbers of Shags were sitting, inhabitants of the caves 

 of the more lofty southern portion, the north face of which 

 afforded fine nesting cliffs for rockbirds and a very consider- 

 able colony of Kittiwakes. 



During our very hurried run towards the northern pro- 

 montory, we saw two Whimbrels {Nununins 2^haeopiis) evi- 

 dently breeding on the level or gently-sloping top not far 

 from our landing-place. From the actions of the birds, the 

 fact of their breeding was so evident, that I am confident 

 that in half an hour's search we would have discovered the 



