LETTER XVIII. 127 



Feeling conscious of having passed the Rubicon one half ounce, 

 I may as well carry on till I expend myself, as it is fated that 

 the revenue shall be augmented by a supplementary penny. What 

 must be, must. Pray bear with me. These are written by candle- 

 light, and with the assistance of a pipe of the blessed weed " that 

 cheers but does not inebriate." I hope the reader may be in an 

 equally auspicious mood. 



The long-promised note upon the Cormorant is at my pen's 

 point, but it must be again deferred for fear of your patience 

 giving way — " Frien's are like fiddle-strings ; they maunna be o'er 

 straitchit, 1 or they crack " — but I will send it by an early post. 



My departure I have postponed, not for a day or two, but 

 for a bold stretch of three weeks. 



During some severe weather last week a party of five Swans 

 paid us a visit of a few days. Unfortunately a bungler succeeded 

 in making them very timid and wary, so that one of the 

 islanders and myself only succeeded in wounding one, which 

 escaped across the Sound and fell into the hands of some ruthless 

 barbarians, who immediately, like so many hungry ogres, fell upon 

 it, plucked and eat it. All I recovered from them was the head 

 and the legs, which were too indigestible for even their rapacious 

 maws. I have taken a life-size drawing of the head ; it is as 

 large as that of a cat. The feet I have added to my collection 

 of " spogs " (Angliti, paws) of web-footed birds. They are easily 

 prepared by nailing them to a board with pins, when they soon 

 dry, retaining the open position you wish them to have ; then 



1 Straightened, stretched. Strait, to straighten ; straict, a narrow pass ; 

 straitit, constrained. — Ed. 



