80 peesident's adbeess. 



''"We saw of the Scout's eggs, which are very large and 

 speckled. It is very dangerous to climb the rocks for the young 

 of these fowls, and seldom a year passeth but one or other of the 

 climbers fall down and lose their lives, as did one not long before 

 our being there." 



" The laird of this island makes a great profit yearly of the 

 Solan Geese taken; as I remember they told us £130 sterling. 

 The island will afford grass enough to keep thirty sheep. They 

 make strangers that come to visit it burgesses of the Bass, by 

 giving them to drink of the water of the well, which springs 

 near the top of the rock, and a flower out of the garden thereby. 

 The island is nought else but a rock, and stands off the land 

 near a mile. "We found growing in the island in great plenty 

 Beta marina, Lychnis marina nostras, Malva arlorea marina nostras, 

 and Cochlearia rotundifoliaJ'' In modern nomenclature, Beta 

 marina, Sea Beet; /S«7ewe man'^mis^, Sea Campion ; Malva arlorea, 

 Tree or Bass Mallow ; and Cochlearia officinalis, Scurvy Grass. 



Mr. Macgillivray, who visited the island more recently, esti- 

 mated the Solan Geese when he was at the Bass at twenty 

 thousand. It has been more lately computed that about five 

 thousand pairs of Gannets frequent the Bass annually. The 

 breeding season is prolonged from March to September, in con- 

 sequence of the birds not all arriving together, and of the robbery 

 of their first eggs. 



The nests of the Gannet are composed of seaweeds, gathered 

 from the surface of the sea, and lined with grass and turf, which 

 they dig up by the root from the upper part of the Bass, leaving 

 large holes in the ground. They also pick up floating pieces of 

 stick and other curious articles, which they find floating in the 

 sea near the rock, such as butterscoops, india-rubber shoes, 

 children's whips, baskets, etc. One old Gannet contrived to 

 carry up a basket big enough to hold five beer bottles, and not 

 being able to pull it to pieces, made her nest in it. 



In Ray's and Walker's time the price of young Gannets was 

 Is. 8d. each. Now they are 9d. and 6d. each, and the demand 

 is decreasing yearly. It is stated that in James the Fifth's time 

 as many as thirty-six Gannets were ordered for the king's table. 



