.MEMOIR OF PENN.^NT. 
39 
necessary consequence, from having chosen the form 
of a journal for his Tours, and of following the 
country and incidents as they actually occurred. 
Straggling facts, suggested by the district, are per- 
haps too often introduced. 
His works on Natural History were much valued 
at the time of their publication, and contained the 
greater part of the knowledge of the times, upon 
the subjects of which they treated. The value in 
which they were held abroad was seen in the trans- 
lations which appeared in various countries; and 
the British and Arctic Zoologies are universally con- 
sulted and referred to in the publications of the pre- 
sent day. Though there is much in these volumi- 
nous writings that has been superseded by more 
recent discoveries, still they contain a great deai 
of curious and interesting information; and, per- 
haps, as they are now but rarely to be met with, 
except in public libraries, we may do an act of 
justice to the memory of Pennant, as well as confer 
a favour on our readers, by selecting a few extracts 
as an appropriate accompaniment to the preceding 
sketch. In the first volume of his Arctic Zoology, 
he gives a truly picturesque description of the mode 
of taking eggs and sea-fowl, as practised in some of 
the Orkney and other neighbouring islands. 
“ Multitudes of the inhabitants of each cluster 
of i.slands feed, during the season, on the eggs of 
the birds of the cliffs. The method of taking them 
is so very hazardous, as to satisfy us of the ex- 
