ST. KILDA AND ITS BIRDS. 341) 



isolation, the people must have been at the mercy of an 

 unprincipled landlord. The then lessee of the island took 

 all the grain he could lay his hands on, except such as 

 the people hid. He used to go over to the Glen where the 

 women milked the ewes, and take possession of the cheese 

 they were making. He also claimed every seventh lamb 

 as his own, and these lambs being placed on Soay, were 

 allowed to go wild there, as the natives would not trouble 

 to look after them. This is how the wild Soay sheep 

 originated, and it is this curious circumstance which has 

 preserved to the present time the breed of sheep with 

 which St. Kilda was stocked in the eighteenth century, 

 and which was doubtless the same as that which was 

 generally spread over the western islands at that period, 

 but which has now been entirely supplanted by the intro- 

 duction of new and improved forms. But to go on with 

 the story. There was at that time in the island a 

 Missionary named Alexander MacLeod, who had a son 

 who had gone into the army and risen to the rank of 

 Colonel. The natives in their extremity went to this 

 Missionary, and persuaded him to try and get his son to 

 buy the island, and deliver them from their bondage. 

 This the Colonel consented to do, as he took an 

 interest in the place, he having been, it is said, 

 bom there. Xegotiations were opened up with Mr. 

 Hume, who being in want of money at length consented 

 to sell, although with considerable reluctance. The 

 Colonel having obtained possession, now re-visited St. 

 Kilda, and to the great joy of the natives abolished all 

 irregular exactions, and gave instructions that a nominal 

 rent only should be paid him, which he would send a man 

 to collect twice a year. After the Colonel's death the 

 island passed into the possession of his son, Sir John 

 MacLeod, who continued the same generous treatment 



