st. KiLfrA and its mnps. 343 



quences. On our way down the rocks to the boat we 

 delayed somewhat over getting a photograph of a sitting 

 Fulmar, and had not paid much attention to a sea-fog 

 which had gradually been settling down, but by the time 

 we had re-embarked and got fairly started, this had 

 become so thick that objects could not be distinguished, 

 clearly above 100 yards away, and the horizon became 

 more and more contracted as we proceeded. The other 

 boats that had been at the island had left before us, and 

 were nowhere to be seen. We soon lost sight of Boreray, 

 and had nothing to steer our course by, for I found, to my 

 surprise, that the men had brought no compass with them. 

 The only thing, indeed, the men had to go by was the 

 direction of the wind, which was very, light, and my 

 enquiry as to how they knew the wind had not changed 

 since the afternoon failed to elicit any satisfactory 

 response. Two hours passed, and we ought to have landed 

 in Tillage Bay, and yet for aught we could tell to the 

 contrary, we might have been miles from any land. There 

 was a death-like silence over everything. A Fulmar 

 would frequently sweep by in its silent ghost-like fashion, 

 and little parties of Guillemots would pass us in their 

 bustling flight, but they were not all going the same way, 

 and gave us no indication as to the direction of the land. 

 It seemed at one time quite on the cards that we might 

 have to pass the night at sea, and as our boat was a small 

 one, and quite unfitted to stand any weather should any 

 wind have got up, and as we had no provisions left, the 

 prospect was not a pleasant one. At length, during one 

 of the periodical restings on the oars, a sharp-eared lad in 

 the boat thought he heard a sound as of surf on the rocks, 

 and though the sound was not audible to the rest of us, we 

 altered our course in the direction indicated, and after 

 rowing for some time longer the roar of surf became 



