BEPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 31 



" goose."* John, Duke of Lauderdale, was Governor of the 

 Bass in 1674, and received some £70 annually from the sale 

 of what are called Sollen-Geese in his accountant's books. f 

 Whatever his name, the j'oung bird on first being hatched 

 is bluish black, but in a week's time is covered with white 

 down. As it grows older it alters its colouring in a surprising 

 way ; at one year old it is dark slaty grey, nearly black, 

 speckled with small white triangular marks ; at two years 

 it becomes chiefly white, but retains the black-grey tint on 

 wings and tail ; at three years the white plumage has further 

 increased, the black being confined to the larger scapularies 

 in blotches, and to the tertiaries ; while at four years all the 

 full white plumage is obtained, only the wing tips remaining 

 a dark brown. Except in shape, the one-year-old and four- 

 year-old are very unlike, and are hardly to be recognised as 

 the same bird. Though he takes four j'ears to reach feathered 

 maturity, the Solan apparently lives long to enjoy his coat 

 of venerable white, for Selby gives 48 years as the age of 

 some birds which were particularly observed. 



After the ornithology, the evidence of human occupation 

 of the Bass occupied us, and we inspected the ruined fortress- 

 prison and chapel, and also the modern light-house works 

 which have been recently begun. The earlier human history 

 is a record of life passed under grim conditions. ** It is," 

 to quote the words of our President, " as a ' Patmos of many 

 godly men ' — the background to struggles and triumphs of 

 the indomitable mind sustained and fortified not by applause, 

 but by religion and the consciousness of right — that the Rook 

 possesses associations for the true-born Scot, which may well 

 serve to move and thrill him. For on this gloomy islet, 

 in the bad years 1667-87, no less than nine and thirty staunch 

 Presbyterians suffered imprisonment for conscience' sake ; the 

 martyrs of the Bass, as they have been reverently called, 

 the word being employed in its original sense of * witness,* 



* The older Natural History Books give choice of at least three Latin 

 versions of the gannet, viz.— Peiecanus hassanus, Sula alba, and Sula 

 hassana, the last being now adopted as correct. 



t Proceedings of the B.N.C., Vol. vii., p. 90. 



