Notice regarding the Isles of St Kilda. 131) 
regard to religion, we can say little with certainty, and regret to 
understand, that, of late years, they have profited but little by 
their intercourse with their clergyman, with whom they would 
seem to have lived in a state of mutual hostility. They are 
civil to strangers ; but do not seem to be attentive to their own 
spoor, who generally leave the island, to wander over Harris and 
Uist. We can readily imagine how useful a respectable clergy- 
man would be among these poor people. In the relation which 
might be made to exist between them, we can contemplate by 
anticipation, the pleasing picture of a sort of patriarchal govern- 
ment, in which the pastor, ever anxious to extend the illumi- 
nating influence of the Gospel over minds enveloped in dark- 
ness and superstition, might also foster a spirit of improvement 
in regard to their temporal concerns, which might materially 
improve their condition, while his people would repay his solici- 
tude with affection and gratitude, more pleasing to a feeling 
heart than any recompence. 
The St Kildians are fond of music and poetry. There are a 
few musicians among them, and the art of making verse, like 
many other trades in the Hebrides, can, upon any occasion, 
be taken up by every body. There is nothing, however, in the 
poetry to distinguish it from that of the other islanders. It is 
confined to songs, amorous and humorous, and lamentations for 
the dead, in which the feelings of the composer are first described, 
and then the good qualities of the deceased. 
Two circumstances may still be mentioned with regard to St 
Kilda. The first is one, which, although firmly believed by 
the people of the neighbouring islands, and in fact attested by 
pretty good authority, is yet somewhat too marvellous to be 
readily credited. It is, that, on the arrival of strangers among 
them, a sort of catarrh is immediately diffused among the inha- 
bitants. This catarrh they distinguish by a specific appellation, 
signifying boat-cold. The other circumstance relates to orni- 
thology ; it is, that, at an early hour, the solan geese which fre- 
quent the shores of the Outer Hebrides, are seen coming in 
strings from the north-west up the Sound of Harris, and in the 
evening, retiring toward the Atlantic in the same direction and 
order. If we consider the amazing velocity with which birds 
fly, it will not be considered an improbable conjecture, that 
these animals resort to Boreray every night, and return in the 
