Perth Amboy evening news., 1923-07-05
Geographic News
An Island Lost yearly
Bulletins by the
National Geographic Society

An Island Lost Yearly
(: Little st. Kiida, one of the out
ermost of the Outer Hebrides Is
lands, which newspapers say Is soon
to catch up with the news of nine
or ten months ago when the West
Highland steamer again calls at its
port, was among the last of the
strongho1ds of the Great AUX be-
fore its final extinction says a bull
letin of the National Geographic So
ciety from its Washington, D. C.
headquarters.
This bird was at one time a vAlu-
: able asset of the islanders, who now
catch puffins, the fulmar-one of the
largest of the petrels-guillemots
ra~zor-birds, and solan geese both fol
their food and oil. A specimen of
the Great AUX was captured alive
off st. Ki1da in 1921 and a later one
in 1910. One or two later specimens
may have fingered on In Iceland or
the Farce Islands, but 1t evidently
! disappeared from the earth entirely
about 1874 or 1s45.
Fish Oil From Birds
During one week OF August each
year the st. kildans take the fill
mar in great numbers. Their bodies
yield an oil which is practically a
pure fish oil possessing most of the
qualities of. that made from the
| liver Of the cod. After this has boen
| extracted, the islanders preserve the
! meat Of the bird for consumption
| during the winter months. Nearly
every person and thing hat comes
from st. Kilda "a be identified by
it's fish-oil smell.
THE island, which is probably the
core of a Tertiary volcano, becomes
lost every autumn when the heavy
mists of the Atlantic close in on it
and make the one small port on its
precipitous sides inaccessible. Its
people have no means OF commune
cation with the outside world dur
ing their isolation. For generations,
when they have been near starvation
or afflicted with diseases during the
winter months, they have relied upon
sea messages' for aid. They write
messages and put them in boxes 81
bottles when the wind is blowing
from the west and trust that they
will reach the shores or Scotland
within a week. A wireless station
was built previous to the World War
on the island, but 1t is said that even
before the Germans destroyed 1t.
It was Of no value to the islanders
for they refused to learn the use OF
the instrument, saying that 1t was
against nature.
Land of Menhirs and CronilecI1s
THE handful of men and women
who inhabit this outpost Of the Brit
ish Empire are evidently direct de-
scendants OF the Black Danes, who
pushed down from Norway and Jut-
land. The blood of these rovers
shows today in the broad-headed,
dark complexioned people of the
Orkneys, the Hebrides, and the
coasts of the Irish Sea. The st. Kill
dams, however, speak a Scottish
Gaelic. Most OF the Outer Hebrides
also are dotted with menhirs, crom-
lechs, and circles of standing stones
somewhat similar to the Druid cir
Gle at S~tonehenge.
"St. Kilda and other islands In the
group are remaining portions of the
land-surface of the Oldest continent
of which we have any trace in Eu-
rope. When the Caledonian earth
movements occurred 1T the close Of
Silurian times, the ocean floor was
pushed upward forming the noun
tain peaks of what is now northern
Scotland. This oldest land-mass in
the British Isles area, known as the
Huronian continent, is revealed in
the Outer Hebrides of today.
1.-THE land in many parts of the
islands west of Scotland is very
poor, and though the climate is
equab1e, 1t is difficult to do any farm
ing. The rainfall is very heavy, but
less than that on some portions OF
the mainland. The grey seal, which
is restricted to the shores of the
North Atlantic, finds friendly haunts
on the rugged coasts of the Hebri-
des; and a characteristic race OF
small horses is still to be found on
the islands. though they are fast be-
coming extinct.
est. Kildans hunt, on the island
of Soay lying about 40 miles farther
west, out in the Atlantic, sheep
which belong to a large-horned
breed once widely spread through
out Europe during the Bronze age.
These animals are today the last
representatives of their race"