On the Alteration of Sea-Level. 



407 



the Hebrides, being engaged in the erection of the light- 

 house at Skerryvore, under the superintendence of the late 

 Mr Alan Stevenson, civil engineer, I had opportunities of 

 observing the mode of fishing for sillocks and other small 

 fish, very abundant there at certain seasons. It is not the 

 mode of fishing, so much as the appliances made use of by 

 the natives for fishing, to which I wish to direct attention. 



On the south end of the island there is a rocky headland 

 called Hynish Point, much resorted to by the natives for 

 rod and hand-net fishing. The east face of this rock is 

 naturally adapted for such exercise, in having several ranges 

 of natural steps or stages upon which the fishers take up 

 their position. Several of these stages, about half tide up 

 and upwards, have circular holes, in the shape of a bowl, 

 cut out of the hard gneiss rock, into which the fishers put 

 shell-fish, which they bruise with a round stone till they 

 are like pulp. Handfulls of this pulp are thrown into the 

 sea, to decoy the fish close upon the rock, and then the fish 

 are taken, either by the hook or net, in great quantities. 



When the tide has risen to the lowest stage, the fishers 

 have recourse to the next stage higher up the face of the 

 rock, and so on as the tide rises ; and on several of these 

 places also holes are excavated for the shell-fish thus pre- 

 pared. 



I have observed that considerably higher up the face of 

 the rock there are stages with holes cut into them, similar 

 to those below, but which are much too high to be of any 

 service at the present day as fishing stances, as they are a 

 great many feet beyond practicable reach of the sea. 



The fact of these holes in the upper parts of the rock being 

 of the same shape, fee. as those at present in use, shows 

 that the mode of fishing is not only a very old one, but, in 

 my opinion, it is also a strong proof of a change having 

 taken place in the sea-level, and that this process may still 

 be going on for aught we know to the contrary. 



