The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



Only in one spot have I seen it, namely on the slopes of 

 Beinn Hough, a round grassy hill standing on the north- 

 western shores of the island. Still, its absence is no mis- 

 fortune, for once this quickly spreading fern gains a foot- 

 ing on the land it is extremely difficult to eradicate, and it 

 is not to its credit that it thrives best where the soil is 

 richest. 



It is beyond Beinn Hough that there lies the wildest 

 part of Tiree, Craignish Point by name. Here the land runs 

 out, in a narrow peninsula, into the sea, and for miles to 

 the westward there stretches wild broken water, with jagged 

 reefs of rocks where the grey seals rest and round which 

 there swim great copper-coloured lythe of an August even- 

 ing. A rock-girt coast this, and avoided by mariners except 

 when, in fog or darkness, or helpless in a great storm, their 

 craft approach these great rocks and perhaps meet their 

 end here. 



Born and bred by the sea, some of the finest seamen of 

 the west come from Tiree. In their small boats the men put 

 to sea at any time throughout the year when the weather 

 is at all favourable. In summer they are perhaps after 

 saithe, or " piocaich," as they term them in the Gaelic, 

 or they may perhaps be trolling for lythe, for kippering 

 for the winter months. Then there is the lobster fishing, 

 which takes up much of their time from early summer up 

 to December and even to the New Year, should the weather 

 be fair. In winter and early spring there are long 

 lines to be set for cod and ling, and there is also the herring 

 fishing, which of late has brought much money to the 

 island. 



Since there is now no peat on Tiree, the natives up to 

 recent years were wont to sail their small skiffs across to 

 the Ross of Mull, over twenty miles to the south-east of the 

 island, where there is an abundance of moss and peat bogs. 

 But more than one accident occurred on the passage across, 

 and more than one boat was lost, so that the custom has been 



162 



