Page:Transactions of the Natural History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle-upon-Tyne 1838 Vol.2.djvu/235

Rh miles long, from north-west to south-east, and two or two and a half wide. Soa, which lies 200 yards to the west of it, is nearly triangular, and about a mile across; and Borera, five miles to the north-east, rather larger. Martin, who published an excellent history of these islands more than a century ago, calls St. Kilda 1450 feet high; but McCulloch, who I should think measured it more accurately, makes it 1380. The highest precipices are on the north side, where they descend unbroken to the sea from the very summit of Conachar, the loftiest hill in the island, presenting to the eye the finest precipice in Great Britain. Soa is not nearly so lofty, or so precipitous; but Borera is of about the same height, and more inaccessible, containing on its north side, which like St. Kilda is the steepest, some most stupendous and extraordinary scenes.

Of these islands, the largest alone possesses an abundant supply of water, the others only having a single bad spring each; but on St. Kilda it is most abundant and of excellent quality, each spring being celebrated for some particular virtue it is imagined to possess, and named accordingly.

We were much struck with the good looks of the inhabitants as they turned out, men, women, and children, to receive us. They are of rather short stature, but present neat compact specimens of the human form, set off by lively intelligent countenances, adorned almost always with beautifully white teeth. Their number is a little more than a hundred, and has remained nearly unchanged for centuries; the lack of increase being generally attributed to want of surgical aid for their women in childbed. I did not hear that longevity is common among them, but from the hale countenances we saw, and the temperance of their habits, I should think it must be so. The dress worn on the island is much the same as that of fishermen at our remote fishing villages, coarse bluejacket and trousers, and sometimes with, though frequently without, shoes and stockings. These latter, however, are often worn with a soling of sea fowl feathers compactly sewed to them, and must be very safe to traverse the slippery precipices in. Hats or caps they seldom wear. The women wear a gown of the same blue woollen material of which the men's