gb0551ms-36-45-21

Transcription

[Page] 21

The walls of these structures are about [--] ft. [feet] in
thickness and like the surrounding wall seemingly
built without mortar. The elevation of the
top of the island is some 3' above ordinary
water level and it has possibly been made
up to some extent - the smaller islet has a
much lower elevation. The form of this
island fortress is very similar to that on the
Green island, now a peninsula, at the side
of Milton Loch. The walled enclosure con:
:taining rectangular buildings at once recalls
the islands in Loch Maberry, Loch Ochiltree &c.
in Wigtownshire.
Over the island, as we were ferried to it by
a kindly fisher, there rose & fell a white cloud
of screaming gulls and when we put foot
on it only by walking most circumspectly
were we able to avoid crushing young birds
or breaking eggs at every step. The young
ones were in every stage from the new hatched
blinking "squab", hardly able to balance itself
on the edge of the nest, to ungainly objects
the size of peeweets. When our work took us
to the water's edge away would sail a flock
of tiny fluffy ? chicks some of them getting to
where the parent gulls had settled on the water

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