Year: 1871

TIE BIRDS OF BASS ROCK


The Bass Rock has been looming grand.
", though dimly. on the horizon during
the last dozen miiez OF our course, aud tho
sea being beautifully calm, and our cap
tain a. placid and as accommodating as
the weather, We suggest that he should
steam the good ship round the northern
and almost perpendicular side Of the'rock
instead of taking the usual southern chan
nei On so calm day the deviation IN
wolves no danger and a delay of no more
than ten minutes or a quarter OF an hour
Is OF trItiing account in voyage from the
Thames. To please his passengers. the
captain consents TO DO as required, and
we are rewarded by a spectacle As difficult
to describe in ali its beauty as it is I'M
possible to forget The rock. which forms
an island about mile in circumference,
rises abruptly from the level Of the sea to
a height of about four hundred and twenty
feet, but seems twice a. lofty as seen from
the deck Of the vessel The whole north
crn face Of the rock is white with sea
fowls, gulS ganneJ and solan geese, who.
alarmed by the appearance Of our vessel


rise to the air IN countless myriads
screaming and futtering, in vain protest
against our unwelcOme proximity. The
passengers are all more or less excited at
the novel sight. They shout, they roar,
they clap their hands, TO alarm the birds ::
the steward rings the big bell, and the
engineer, catching the contagion Of the
moment, lets off the steam at the alarm
whistle, and the diabolcal sound scares
some thousands more of the older and more
experienced birds, who had possibly treated
our intrusion with philosophic Indifference
And as we glover, amazed and curious,
like Tam O. Shanter. the mirth and fun
grow fast and furious and one frantic
passenger, rushing up from below with
gun IN his hand, blazes away at the birds
to my intense disgust. Happily the gun
is not loaded, except with powder, and the
beautiful and harmless birds are. as the
French would say, Quite pour la peur,'
and whirl and scream over our heads with
continually increasing vehemence. As our
vessel proceeds on Its course, they settle
down upon their nests, and we watch them
through telescopes and opera glasses until
the noble rock is left mile in our rear.
On the southeastern slope there is a land
ing place, only accessible in calm weather,
whittier pleasure parties from Leith and
Edinburgh often resort in the summer for
a wild picnic IN this palace of nature


The Bass Rock has a history of its own,
and has the honor If honor it can be called,
of having been the last place within the
British Isles that held out for the lawful
king against the revolution of 1858. One
Captain Maitland, with a garrison of fifty
men in the little lortifcation built on the
only accessible side Of the rock, defended
it valiantly for nearly three years for
James the Seventh of Scotland (James the
Second Of England, that the Scottish privy
council thought it expedient to enter into
negotiations for It's surrender The garri-
son was allowed to retire with the honors
of war the little fort was\demolished, and
the rock, with its pasturage of seven acres
OF scanty herbage, and its ld-fowl, pres
ent and to come, were bestowed by the
Crown upon Sir James Dalrymple, lord
president of the Court of Sessions, to whose
descendants it still belongs The ruling
party, whose principles sprung into the
ascendant along with King William, were
not sorry to destroy q fortress which had
often served as a state prison for the Cow
enanters in the unhappy days Of the per-
secutlon.' The Bass was originally the
property of the Lauders of the Bass who
retained it for upward of four centuries.
ln the year 1923, the then head of the
family being in great pecuniary straits


took refuge upon their all but inaccessible