LETTER IV. 



THROUGH THE SOUNDS— STORNAWAY — THE SETTING UP OF THE 

 FIGURE-HEAD — FITZ'S FORAY — OH WEEL MAY THE BOATIE ROW, 

 THAT WINS THE BAIRNS'S BREAD — SIR PATRICK SPENS JOINS — UP 

 ANCHOR. 



Stornaway, Island of Lewis, Hebrides, 

 June 9, 1856. 



We reached these Islands of the West the day before 

 yesterday, after a fine run from Oban. 



I had intended taking Staffa and Iona on my way, but it 

 came on so thick with heavy weather from the south-west, 

 that to have landed on either island would have been out of 

 the question. So we bore up under Mull at one in the 

 morning, tore through the Sound at daylight, rounded 

 Ardnamurchan under a double-reefed mainsail at two p.m., 

 and shot into the Sound of Skye the same evening, leaving 

 the hills of Moidart (one of whose "seven men'' 1 was an 

 ancestor of your own), and the jaws of the hospitable Loch 

 Hourn, reddening in the stormy sunset. 



At Kylakin we were obliged to bring up for the night ; but 

 getting under weigh again at daylight, we took a fair wind 

 with us along the east coast of Skye, passed Raasa and 

 Rona, and so across the Minch to Stornaway. 



Stornaway is a little fishing-town with a beautiful harbour, 

 from out of which was sailing, as we entered, a fleet of 

 herring-boats, their brown sails gleaming like gold against 

 the dark angry water as they fluttered out to sea, unmindful 

 of the leaden clouds banked up along the west, and all the 

 symptoms of an approaching gale. The next morning it 

 was upon us ; but brought up as we were under the lea of 

 a high rock, the tempest tore harmlessly over our heads, 

 and left us at liberty to make the final preparations for 

 departure. 



