From
that time they visited him no more, but left him to perish in
solitude and darkness.
We were then told of a cavern by the sea-side, remarkable for the
powerful reverberation of sounds. After dinner we took a boat, to
explore this curious cavity. The boatmen, who seemed to be of a
rank above that of common drudges, inquired who the strangers were,
and being told we came one from Scotland, and the other from
England, asked if the Englishman could recount a long genealogy.
What answer was given them, the conversation being in Erse, I was
not much inclined to examine.
They expected no good event of the voyage; for one of them declared
that he heard the cry of an English ghost. This omen I was not
told till after our return, and therefore cannot claim the dignity
of despising it.
The sea was smooth. We never left the shore, and came without any
disaster to the cavern, which we found rugged and misshapen, about
one hundred and eighty feet long, thirty wide in the broadest part,
and in the loftiest, as we guessed, about thirty high. It was now
dry, but at high water the sea rises in it near six feet. Here I
saw what I had never seen before, limpets and mussels in their
natural state. But, as a new testimony to the veracity of common
fame, here was no echo to be heard.
We then walked through a natural arch in the rock, which might have
pleased us by its novelty, had the stones, which incumbered our
feet, given us leisure to consider it. We were shown the gummy
seed of the kelp, that fastens itself to a stone, from which it
grows into a strong stalk.
In our return, we found a little boy upon the point of rock,
catching with his angle, a supper for the family. We rowed up to
him, and borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Boswell caught a cuddy.
The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the philosophical name. It
is not much bigger than a gudgeon, but is of great use in these
Islands, as it affords the lower people both food, and oil for
their lamps. Cuddies are so abundant, at sometimes of the year,
that they are caught like whitebait in the Thames, only by dipping
a basket and drawing it back.
If it were always practicable to fish, these Islands could never be
in much danger from famine; but unhappily in the winter, when other
provision fails, the seas are commonly too rough for nets, or
boats.
TALISKER IN SKY
From Ulinish, our next stage was to Talisker, the house of colonel
Macleod, an officer in the Dutch service, who, in this time of
universal peace, has for several years been permitted to be absent
from his regiment. Having been bred to physick, he is consequently
a scholar, and his lady, by accompanying him in his different
places of residence, is become skilful in several languages.
Talisker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the
gay and the jovial seem utterly excluded; and where the hermit
might expect to grow old in meditation, without possibility of
disturbance or interruption. It is situated very near the sea, but
upon a coast where no vessel lands but when it is driven by a
tempest on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills streaming
with water-falls. The garden is sheltered by firs or pines, which
grow there so prosperously, that some, which the present inhabitant
planted, are very high and thick.
At this place we very happily met Mr. Donald Maclean, a young
gentleman, the eldest son of the Laird of Col, heir to a very great
extent of land, and so desirous of improving his inheritance, that
he spent a considerable time among the farmers of Hertfordshire,
and Hampshire, to learn their practice. He worked with his own
hands at the principal operations of agriculture, that he might not
deceive himself by a false opinion of skill, which, if he should
find it deficient at home, he had no means of completing. If the
world has agreed to praise the travels and manual labours of the
Czar of Muscovy, let Col have his share of the like applause, in
the proportion of his dominions to the empire of Russia.
This young gentleman was sporting in the mountains of Sky, and when
he was weary with following his game, repaired for lodging to
Talisker. At night he missed one of his dogs, and when he went to
seek him in the morning, found two eagles feeding on his carcass.
Col, for he must be named by his possessions, hearing that our
intention was to visit Jona, offered to conduct us to his chief,
Sir Allan Maclean, who lived in the isle of Inch Kenneth, and would
readily find us a convenient passage. From this time was formed an
acquaintance, which being begun by kindness, was accidentally
continued by constraint; we derived much pleasure from it, and I
hope have given him no reason to repent it.
The weather was now almost one continued storm, and we were to
snatch some happy intermission to be conveyed to Mull, the third
Island of the Hebrides, lying about a degree south of Sky, whence
we might easily find our way to Inch Kenneth, where Sir Allan
Maclean resided, and afterward to Jona.
For this purpose, the most commodious station that we could take
was Armidel, which Sir Alexander Macdonald had now left to a
gentleman, who lived there as his factor or steward.
In our way to Armidel was Coriatachan, where we had already been,
and to which therefore we were very willing to return.
