140 
Notice regarding the Isles of St Kilda . 
morning to the fishing stations ; in favour of which opinion, it 
may further be mentioned, that no instance has ever occurred 
of a solan-gwse having been observed to repose on any of the 
shores of the Hebrides. 
Such, then, is the condition of the inhabitants of St Kilda. 
Compared with that of the poor people of Harris or Lewis, it 
is in many respects enviable ; how much more so, then, when 
compared with that of the miserable dwellers upon the frigid 
and desolate rock of the Iceland Grimsey. The St Kildian 
never quits his ocean-isle but with reluctance, and if detained 
by contrary winds, languishes and desponds : but this may be 
equally remarked of the natives of many of the other islands. 
Art. XV. — Report on the Present State of the Wooden Bridge 
at Montrose , and the practicability of Erecting a Suspended 
Bridge of Iron in its stead. By George Buchanan, Esq. 
Civil Engineer, and Lecturer on Mechanics at the School of 
Arts, Edinburgh. 
[The erection of Iron-Bridges of Suspension forms a new and very 
important branch of practical mechanics. On this account we 
have been careful to collect and publish in our previous numbers 
descriptions of the principal structures of this kind erected in 
this country. As the principles of their construction, however, 
have not been fully treated of in any work on this subject with 
which we are acquainted, we are happy to be able to lay before 
our readers a luminous and accurate exposition of these, in the 
following Abstract of a very interesting and able Report, drawn 
up by Mr Buchanan, at the request of the Montrose-Bridge 
Commissioners, and which they have printed for their informa- 
tion, and obligingly communicated at the authors request, along 
with the use of the Plates, for this Journal. The notes do not 
occur in the printed Report, but have been added by Mr Bu- 
chanan. — -Edit.^I 
TThE river South Esk at Montrose, over which the present 
wooden bridge * is erected, is remarkable for its broad, deep, and 
* This bridge was erected about the year 1792, prior to which period the river 
was crossed by means of ferry-boats. Owing to the rapidity of the currents, how- 
