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A FLIGHT TO ST. KILDA
15
coals which had been sent specially for
his use, having disappeared one night, he said the
thieves must be on the island, and that it behoved them
to find out who they were. The result was that nobody
would come to hear him, and he, too, has had to go. At
present, the elders, along with a lay missionary, take
turns at the preaching, and an ordained minister is sent
over at the Communion time, while a female teacher opens
the School for certain
months in the year;
and this is perhaps as good an arrangement as could be
come to meanwhile.
The islands belong to Macleod of Dunvegan,
who bought them some years ago for £3,000. But they
cannot be called a profitable concern, as the crofters
only pay £2 a year for house and farm rent, with 9d. a
year for each of the sheep they graze on the hill. Part
of their rent is paid in the down of fulmars — a species
of sea-fowl abundant here. Beside the fish caught off
their shores,
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