4 
GANNET. 
the smell of the guano which clings to them. The small village of Canty Bay, as well as the greater number 
of the inhabitants, usually become thoroughly impregnated with a somewhat unsavoury perfume shortly after 
the taking of the young Gannets. The process of preparing the birds, and particularly the operation of boiling 
the fat down into oil, is highly odoriferous ; a three months’ residence in the cottage of one of the fishermen 
during the autumn of 1874 gave me many opportunities of ascertaining this fact. When a large number of 
birds have been brought in, the labour of removing their feathers occupies a considerable time. So gaunt and 
grim is tbe aspect of the six or eight elderly hags employed at the work, as they sit in a circle in the dim 
light of the ruined and gloomy plucking-shed, their heads wrapped round with cloths, half-smothered in dirt 
and feathers, that a view of the proceedings almost conveys to an observer the impression that he is gazing 
at an assemblage of w itches. 
I have frequently been at the Bass Bock during the autumn in former years, when large numbers of young 
were taken. On the occasion of my last visit in 1874 the weather was exceedingly stormy and interfered 
considerably with the work. A few extracts from my notes of that year may possibly supply some information 
concerning the management of the birds and the means of capture that has not hitherto been recorded. The 
season commenced on the 5th of August, on which day three dozen were procured. Heavy gales and almost 
constant rain prevented another attempt till the 18th. Though the wind had dropped and the sea was calm, 
the cliffs were still so foul with liquid guano (which is supposed to be highly injurious to the ropes) that no 
descent was made, and the work was confined to taking a few young from the upper ledges near the summit 
of the Bock. Eor this purpose a long pole with a hook is used, the bird being seized by the neck and 
drawn to the top, where it is immediately killed. When all that can be reached from one ledge have 
been procured, they are collected into a heap and thrown over the cliffs into the water ; the carcasses are 
then picked up by a boat which is waiting on purpose to collect them. The younger and more active of the 
crews from the small village at Canty Bay are generally employed in the work of capturing and killing the 
birds, while the older men remain in a boat a short distance clear of the Bock, and on some prearranged signal 
row in and pick up the bodies. John Kelly and Andrew McLean, two of the oldest hands (both over 
70 years of age), told me they met with a narrow escape, while so employed, a few years back. They had, as 
usual, been watching at some distance outside to see the birds flung over. After fifty or sixty had been 
thrown down, as a sudden stoppage occurred, they imagined the men had completed their work, so, pulling 
close in to the Bock, commenced at once to pick up. It turned out, however, that those on the top had 
merely rested for a few minutes, having scarcely cast over half tlie number they had killed. But two or three 
had been got on board (John Kelly was paddling with the oars, wdiile M“Lean was busily engaged in lifting 
in the birds with the boat-hook) when crash came a young Goose, striking an oar and breaking it in twm 
pieces. The next moment another was dashed against the gunwale, and a third just missed the head of old 
John, eausing him to let go his unbroken oar. The poor fellow^s were now perfectly helpless immediately 
below the spot from which the Geese w^ere being flung. The Bock is so steep that there was not the slightest 
chance of their being seen from the top, Avhile the clamour of the Gannets (rendered doubly noisy by their 
recent bereavements), together wdth the roar of the sea, precluded all hopes that their cries could be heard. 
Luckily the boat, though old, w'as strongly put together ; and, creeping at once beneath the seats, the terrified 
ci’eAv escaped with no more serious results than a good scare. After having throwm over the whole of the birds 
they had brought together on the summit of the Bock, the men looked out for the boat, in order to give the 
signal for collecting the bodies from the water. As the craft remained invisible and a nasty swell was rolling 
round the Bock, some mishap was anticipated; so hastening down to the landing-place, where their owm boat 
was mooi*ed, they pulled round towards the quarter in which the old men had last been seen. At lengtli they 
wei’C found, little or none the worse, though half-smothered ivitli blood and feathers. Many of the birds which 
struck the boat had been dashed to pieces, sending the fragments Hying in all directions. A young Gannet 
