The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



Though situated on the mainland of Scotland the pro- 

 montory and the district around it are, curiously enough, 

 inaccessible except from the Island of Mull. Twice weekly 

 during the years of the war the sturdy mail-boat crossed from 

 Tobermory to the small crofting community of Kilchoan, and 

 was met by a ferry-boat, manned by experts who succeed in 

 putting out to sea when it would seem as though no craft of 

 her size could live in such weather. Often of a winter's morn- 

 ing I have seen, from the mail-boat, the lamp of the ferry-boat 

 guiding the steamer to her side, at a time when even the 

 first streaks of dawn were not yet visible in the eastern 

 sky, and when the frosty air was clear and still. 



It is only very gradually that the hand of spring — 

 always backward in these northern latitudes — asserts itself 

 here. On the high hills lying behind the promontory, as 

 late as May snow still lies, deep and unbroken, but at 

 sea level even at dead of winter it remains only for a few 

 hours on end, and by early April, on the narrow ledges of 

 the cliff, the grasses, brow-ned by the salt-laden gales from 

 off the Atlantic, have become once again tinged with 

 green. By then, the herons have taken up their quarters 

 on the bushes growing on the steep cliff, and are busily 

 occupied with their broods. And with the coming of the 

 fine weather the sea is no longer desolate as during the 

 winter months. 



One morning of early May, when the sun is warming 

 the waters of the ocean from out a cloudless sky, and 

 when not the faintest breeze ruffles the surface of the 

 waters, it is seen that the ocean is peopled with 

 many birds. As far as the eye can reach, puffins, swimming 

 closely together in pairs, give life and activity to the w^ater's 

 surface. They have but just completed their long journey 

 northward from the southern waters of the Atlantic where 

 they have passed the winter, and have not yet gathered 

 at their nesting grounds. With them, but each species 

 keeping to themselves, are other members of the tribe of 



