J. J. Bell

“ At last the men you cannot see bid you gently yet curtly “let go.” Three to one that you hesitate for what seems an age, and that having upset their calculations, you slither through their arms to land heavily among the lobsters or, perchance, on top of a seal shot at Gasgeir Beg while you were exploring Gasgeir Mor. Well, nerves or no nerves, the Atlantic sees to it that no man finds this islet familiar to his foot.
Old MacLeod would have told you as much, and he had made the landing oftener than any man alive. ”

“ The woeful bleat of retreating half-wild sheep is almost drowned in the menacing yells and raucous mocking laughter of innumerable huge gulls that wheel about you in clouds, and follow you wheresoever you turn. ”

“ Half-way to the Gasgeirs, the wind failed and they took to the oars. It was heavy work, and by the time they reached the lobster traps MacLeod was complaining of exhaustion, and a homing breeze was not to be hoped for.
“It is fine weather.” he said suddenly. “The creels can wait till the morning. We have food. We will sleep on Gasgeir Mor. I can pull no more to-night.”
It was not for the lad to demur. Besides, he was keen to land on Gasgeir Mor, and had visions of persuading the old man, after he had rested, to promise him a shot with the strange gun on the morrow. ”

“ Kilda, the utility of the Flannan Group, with its lighthouse, the sensation of white, remote Rockall, where the codfish abound and many a great whale has given up the ghost under the bolt of the Norwegian harpoon gun, where, also, not so long ago, a Scandinavian liner came to bitter grief. The islets lie solitary, in pairs, in clusters. Some are barren rocks, or mere reefs; others support grass and wild flowers, but never a human habitation and rarely a human tread. ”

“ Lie down, however, and presently you will find peace from their clamour of threats and abuse, though they, too, will settle down on the rocks around you, to regard you in suspicious silence, occasionally broken by a sneering squawk. ”