172 Notes on Wild-Fozvl in the [Sess. 



Another bird that attracted our attention was the gannet. 

 It is a beautiful sight to witness this bird making a quarry. 

 On spying a fish it appears to partly close its wings, and, like 

 a whirlwind, it dashes the water into foam as it plunges, and 

 soon reappears with its prey. Several times we saw one 

 make the plunge, but too far away for us to see if it was 

 successful. 



Soon the island of Barra loomed on the horizon, and in due 

 course the pier at Castlebay was reached. It appears to be a 

 great fishing centre, the pier being covered with herring 

 barrels. Getting into conversation with a sergeant of police, 

 I was informed that herring partly salted were sent abroad. 

 We discussed the attitude of the crofters who forcibly took 

 possession of the adjacent island of Vatersay. Whilst at the 

 pier I was interested in watching the steward with baited 

 hooks fishing over the side of the steamer, and I saw him 

 pulling in codlings and coal-fish, which were soon frizzling 

 in the frying-pan and served up to tea. Sailing north- 

 wards on the east side of the archipelago, in a few hours 

 we reached Lochboisdale, which forms an excellent natural 

 harbour. Close to the pier is a comfortable hotel, where we 

 sojourned for the night. As at Barra, the pier was covered 

 with barrels, in which were herring slightly salted and con- 

 signed chiefly to Ilussia. A large quantity of mackerel 

 were being split up, gutted, washed, and salted into barrels, 

 also to be sent abroad, and it was interesting to see 

 the dexterity with which this was accomplished by ' fisher 

 lasses.' 



It would be an interesting sight to fly over and look down 

 from an aeroplane on the Hebridean archipelago, which 

 would appear as if the land was torn to tatters by fresh-water 

 lochs, or by far-reaching arms of the Atlantic. For the sake 

 of the view I would have much liked to ascend to the tops of 

 Mount Hecla or Ben More, both upwards of 2 000 feet. 



At Grogary Lodge are stuffed specimens of birds shot in the 

 district, and the variety of wild geese interested me much. 

 There are the grey lag-goose, the white-fronted goose, the bean 

 goose, the Canadian goose, the barnacle goose, and the brent 

 What struck me as remarkable was the absence of the 

 pi nk- footed species which are seen in such numbers in East 



