GAN NET. 
475 
wave. The shear-water petrel, too, was skimming with 
great rapidity over the surface of the water, following the 
rise and fall of every billow. It was all we saw of the 
feathered inhabitants of this lonely spot. When we reach¬ 
ed the island, every wing was motionless ; it was night, 
and the full moon was throwing its bright light upon 
those rocks which, now so hushed and still, would again 
on the morrow swarm with life. We were to have spent 
a day amongst the islands; but, in consequence of our 
boat having been delayed two days in the Sound of 
Harris by bad weather, our captain was compelled to 
summon us on board, after a short visit to the hum¬ 
ble huts of the natives. Everything around us pro¬ 
claimed the destruction of our favourites; mud-houses, 
the public store-rooms of the village, were filled with 
dried birds for winter store ; large packages of feathers— 
the coin with which they pay their rent—were in every 
house ; and loose feathers, birds’ wings, and bones were 
everywhere strewed, thick and deep: the lamps, too, 
which they were burning, were fed with oil from the 
fulmar petrel. At the great breeding-places of this spe¬ 
cies which I have mentioned, they build their nests upon 
every shelf or projecting ledge of rock which affords 
room on the steep sides of the precipices. It is formed 
of a considerable quantity of sea-weed and dried grass, 
upon which is deposited the single egg, which, when first 
laid, is of a pure white, the harder shell being covered 
over outside with a coating of a chalky substance. 
