Notes on Sula Sgeir and North Bona, with List of Birds. 63 



of nave to it, the internal measurement of which is 14 feet 

 8 inches by 8 feet 3 inches. The masonry is very rude, and 

 seems of great age, certainly of some centuries. A burying- 

 ground, surrounded by a low stone wall, is attached to the 

 building, and contains several plain stone crosses, the tallest 

 of which is about 30 inches high. I shall now proceed with 

 my own short notes. 



Mr Muir's description of the chapel is so accurate that I 

 need hardly say anything more about it. The appearance 

 also of the ruins of the houses fully corroborated Dr Mac- 

 Culloch's description. I was struck at once by the great 

 thickness of the walls, as well as by the fact that the terreplein 

 of the interior was sunk below the level of the surrounding 

 ground. The last family which lived upon Eona was that 

 of a shepherd named Donald M'Leod, otherwise the " King 

 of Eona," who returned to Lewis in 1844 ; since which time 

 it has been uninhabited, except for a few days at the annual 

 sheep -shearing at the end of July. 



The island has been rented for upwards of 230 years by a 

 family named Murray from Lewis, who only gave up their 

 tenancy in the present year. They usually kept from 100 to 

 160 sheep of the blackfaced breed upon it, but occasional 

 losses from their falling over rocks or being stolen by the 

 crews of passing vessels were not infrequent. On one occa- 

 sion, however, the owners of a vessel whose crew had, 

 through scarcity of provisions, been tempted to " lift " a few 

 sheep, honourably sent a sum of money in payment. It has 

 now been let to Mr Finlay Mackenzie, Habost, Ness, in the 

 island of Lewis. The late tenant informed Mr Muir that 

 the rent paid by the resident sub-tenants of Eona, at an early 

 period considerably before his family became tenants, was 

 partly in the form of seal oil. I saw on the island about 

 forty or fifty sheep, which seemed to be very wild. 



As soon as we landed, I made straight for the place where 

 the pilot said the petrels bred. This turned out to be the 

 spot where all the ruins are situated, namely, pretty low 

 down on the grassy slope near the western end of the island. 

 We were all soon at work hauling out large stones, and 

 scraping with our hands, guided by the strong musky odour 



