26 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 



of some well-formed marine pot-holes, due to the gyrating 

 motion of the tidal water set up where it meets the joints 

 in the rocks. Under the old Canty Bay hotel were seen the 

 stratified aqueous rocks of Carboniferous age. 



All having finally reached the Bass Eock by aid of sail 

 and oar, and having landed, in some cases with more energy 

 than dignity, upon the south-eastern margin of the island, 

 observation, exposition, and comment were directed to bird- 

 life and botany on the one hand, and to the history of human 

 occupation on the other. 



The birds we saw were the following nine species — Gannet, 

 Lesser Black-backed Q-ull, Herring Gull, Kittiwake, Guillemot, 

 Razor-bill, Puffin, Jackdaw, Rock Pipet.* 



Of these birds the Solan Goose or Gannet of course drew 

 most attention, as being specially characteristic of the Bass, 

 as his name Sula Bassana implies, though Ailsa Craig is 

 also a favoured resort of his. The custodian of the Rock 

 gave the number of Gannets as 100,000 ; but very divergent 

 estimates have, at different periods, been made of the number 

 which annually resort here for breeding. In 1847 Dr John 

 Fleming, of Edinburgh, put the number at 6,000 ; to-day 

 two estimates were given, from inspection, so far as the eye 

 could judge the number of this perpetually moving and shifting 

 crowd, at 12,000 pairs and 6,000 pairs respectively ; a practised 

 ornithologist being responsible for the latter estimate. A 

 good station for watching the manifold evolutions of the army 

 of sea-fowl was found at a high spot on the south-western 

 end of the island. [Plates IV., V., and VI.] Here, from 

 a small grass-covered platform, we looked down sheer cliffs 

 — alive with birds alighting, seated, or taking wing — upon 

 the sea be.neath, which at this spot has found an opening 

 in the cliff's base. This leads to a natural tunnel, passable 

 at low tide, which penetrates the Bass, and will one day 

 sunder it along a line of weakness in the rock, the chasm 

 passing under the place where a ruined chapel now stands. 



* Dr. Fleming, in 1847, enumerates others — Cormorant (Common and 

 Shag), Eider Daek, Peregrine Falcon, and Turtle Dove (the latter 

 probably accidental.) " The Bass Rock," John Greig & Son, p. 105. 



