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Hi,
I tried googling Rev. Donald John Gillies. It seems that his book on
St.Kilda is available on Amazon etc. He apparently has (or had) a daughter
living in Port Coquitlam, BC. I couldn't find any info about his life in NS,
but he apparently "traveled widely" after leaving Scotland.
I have read other accounts of St.Kilda - it sounds a fascinating place, with
the highest sea cliffs in Europe, the biggest colonies of several seabirds
anywhere, etc. I have seen pictures of the old inhabitants rappelling down
the cliffs to collect birds eggs (I can't remember where), and it looks
highly difficult and dangerous. It's possible, but not easy, and very
expensive, to visit there - there's a great web site all about the place at
http://www.kilda.org.uk/Default.htm .
BTW I have eaten puffin (I think they were roasted) as a delicacy in
Iceland. I found them tough, fishy and horrible! There are probably people
on NatureNS who like "Turr" (Newfoundlandese for alcids in general) and they
may disagree.
Richard
On Sun, Oct 9, 2011 at 3:37 PM, Stephen R. Shaw <srshaw@dal.ca> wrote:
> This is only obliquely triggered, by Richard Stern's mention of fulmar
> below. On the plane flying back from UK recently I'd been reading the memoir
> of Rev. Donald John Gillies 'The Truth about St. Kilda. An islander's
> memoir' [ISBN: 978 1 9065666 07 4; www.birlin.co.uk]. There are other
> books on St Kilda but apparently this is the only account of the privations
> on the outermost, very isolated western isle off Scotland to have been
> written by someone who was actually raised there (the main island is called
> Hirta or Hirte). On pages 7-10 he gives an account of the birds of St.
> Kilda upon which the inhabitants depended for food, which might be of
> interest to some birders and others on this list if it is not already known
> here. Gillies' account includes:
>
> Families got through the winter on a diet of 'salt mutton, salt fish and
> salt fulmar'. His family had two casks (barrels?) of salted young Fulmar
> laid down each year in order to make it through the winter. He doesn't say,
> but these presumably were procured from nests on the cliffs by 'craggsmen'
> on ropes.
>
> The first birds to migrate in after the winter, in early April, were
> Shearwaters (species not IDd). These were caught at night with the aid of a
> trained dog (perhaps 6 birds in a night) and were considered delicious after
> a long winter of fulmar.
>
> The second birds to arrive were Puffins around May 1, seen earlier in rafts
> of millions on the sea nearby. He mentions also seeing them elsewhere after
> he left St Kilda, including near Bird Isle off Sydney, Cape Breton. The
> sheath of the bill is discarded after the breeding season and was prized by
> 'Indians for making necklaces'. As many as 150 would be killed and shared
> out among families who couldn't collect them for themselves. Delicious
> barbecued, he says.
>
> They also harvested Guillemots by lying inert on ledges on sea stacks at
> night disguised in rock-matching clothing, picking the birds off as they
> flew in just before dawn. All the collecting sounds dangerous. He alone
> caught 42 in one expedition to a nearby island, others more.
>
> There was a large colony of gannets on Stac Lee, and apart from the danger
> of trying to land on this sea stack, these were trickier to surprise because
> there was always a lookout bird ('kingbird') on duty that could give the
> alarm. If this bird could be surprised and killed, the hunt would be
> successful. Earlier, gannets were said to have been the main food item on St
> Kilda.
>
> There was also egg collection from the cliffs by craggsmen absailing on
> ropes, though he doesn't give much detail apart from a couple of human
> deaths.
>
> Gillies left St Kilda in the 1920s for the mainland and eventually
> emigrated to Nova Scotia as an ordained minister, and travelled widely after
> that, returning to St K in the 1960s and in 1979. As young people left the
> island after WW1 the remaining islanders could no longer do all the heavy
> work required to survive (e.g. peat cutting, bird collecting) and petitioned
> the British government to relocate them to the mainland. This evacuation
> took place in 1930, leaving St Kilda uninhabited since. The book was
> compiled posthumously from 6 rambling notebooks written by a man raised in
> an oral, non-literary tradition. I wouldn't recommend it as a particularly
> gripping read, but it contains some interesting social information about the
> traditions of the St Kildians.
>
> Does anyone know if anything is known about this Rev Gillies in Nova
> Scotia, after his immigration here?
> Steve, Halifax
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~**~~~~
>
> Quoting Stern <sternrichard@gmail.com>:
>
>> Hi,
>> Brier was quieter today - still many birds and a different mix from
>> yesterday , but (so far) no real rarities. Fulmar and Leach's storm-petrel
>> were interesting on this afternoon' pelagic. Bonaparte's gulls were at N.
>> Point and Pond Cove.
>>
>> Richard Stern
>> sternrichard@gmail.com
>> Sent from my iPhone
>>
>
>
>
--
#################
Dr.R.B.Stern,
P.O. Box 300,
Port Williams,
N.S., Canada,
B0P 1T0
Richard Stern,
Port Williams, NS, Canada
sternrichard@gmail.com
###################
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Hi,<br><br>I tried googling Rev. Donald John Gillies. It seems that his boo=
k on St.Kilda is available on Amazon etc. He apparently has (or had) a daug=
hter living in Port Coquitlam, BC. I couldn't find any info about his l=
ife in NS, but he apparently "traveled widely" after leaving Scot=
land.<br>
<br>I have read other accounts of St.Kilda - it sounds a fascinating place,=
with the highest sea cliffs in Europe, the biggest colonies of several sea=
birds anywhere, etc. I have seen pictures of the old inhabitants rappelling=
down the cliffs to collect birds eggs (I can't remember where), and it=
looks highly difficult and dangerous. It's possible, but not easy, and=
very expensive, to visit there -=A0 there's a great web site all about=
the place at <a href=3D"http://www.kilda.org.uk/Default.htm">http://www.ki=
lda.org.uk/Default.htm</a> . <br>
<br>BTW I have eaten puffin (I think they were roasted) as a delicacy in Ic=
eland. I found them tough, fishy and horrible! There are probably people o