3o 



clergyman, an offer of X I0 ° a year to the present proprietor of 

 the island, the Rev. B. St. John Joule. This offer the agent 

 declined ; and since then, five or six years ago, the people have 

 paid no rent at all, and do not apparently expect to have to pay 

 any more. I have a copy of some very acrimonious cor- 

 respondence that passed between the landlord and others on 

 this subject. The matter seems to have ended — at least for the 

 present — in the landlord's rights being entirely set aside. 



Before concluding, let me take a brief glance at the island. 

 Its surface, including three small lakes, two of them brackish, 

 comprises about 1,200 acres, of which perhaps less than one-sixth 

 may be under cultivation. Of wild quadrupeds there are only 

 two — the rabbit and the common mouse — found. There are 

 no reptiles — not even a frog ; and except the sea fowl in the 

 breeding season, when they are numerous, not many birds, and 

 those almost exclusively ground or cliff breeding birds, as there 

 is not a tree and hardly a bush on the island for the arboreal 

 species. I saw some wheatears, buntings, sparrows, and pipits, 

 grey crows, and starlings— the two latter probably visitors from 

 the mainland. The storm petrel still breeds there ; but, from 

 what I could gather, not in the same numbers as they were 

 found by Mr. Hyndman and his companions in 1845. The 

 person I was speaking to about them knew the birds quite well, 

 and called them " Mother Carey's Chickens." There are a 

 good many poultry and domestic animals on the island; among 

 these some small sized horses, which are used sometimes with 

 panniers, one suspended on each side, or sometimes in carts 

 without wheels, " slipe " carts as they are called. The shafts of 

 these carts are lengthened backwards, and drag along the 

 ground. Mr. Patterson concluded a highly interesting paper 

 by relating a humorous story by the Rev. John Brown con- 

 cerning the introduction of the horse into Tory. 



A number of photographs, taken by Mr. Stelfox during the 

 visit, were exhibited. 



