28 Jottings on a Ramble in Wester Ross. [Sess. 



called Eilan Mor, which we often visited, and which was the 

 resort of large numbers of gulls and terns. They built their 

 nests among the heather on the top of the island — or, more 

 strictly speaking, they laid their eggs there, for their nests 

 hardly deserved the name. We found nests with eggs, two or 

 more in each, in all stages of development, the young chick 

 being occasionally seen with only its bill protruding, and busy 

 picking a hole large enough for its emergence. Young gulls 

 unable to fly were sitting about on projecting rocks : our ap- 

 proach always caused a great commotion among them, and 

 much screaming. Cormorants, puffins, and oyster-catchers 

 were seen in smaller numbers, but they did not frequent or 

 breed on the island. The cormorants seemed to have their 

 home on a small rocky islet close by Ardheslaig Point, which is 

 known as the Cormorant Island. The crowberry was plentiful 

 among the heather on the top of the island, and the fruit, 

 which was quite ripe, was in great plenty. There was 

 abundance of crowberry on the mainland also, but no fruit. 

 I suppose these had been plucked by the grouse, while on 

 the island there was nothing but sea-birds, and they appa- 

 rently did not take the berries. I picked up the cast skin 

 of an adder, which shows they frequent the island, but I saw 

 none. 



The shores are very rocky, and there are numerous caves. 

 We penetrated one at Fearnimore to the distance of 140 yards, 

 by the aid of candles. It divided into two at that distance, one 

 part ending in a round chamber of considerable height, and the 

 other, after rising considerably, was closed by a pool of water. 

 The cave-moss (Uurli ijnchmvi immiluvi) grew here for some dis- 

 tance inwards, depending from the roof and sides. There was 

 another cave between Arrin-a-chruinach and Eilan Mor, where> 

 when approaching it, 1 was struck with a singular projection 

 of the rock from one of the sides in the shape of the profile 

 of a man's head with a pipe in the mouth. We found a few 

 plants of lovage (Zir/usticum scoticum) on the rocks over this 

 cave, while on the roof inside the sea-spleenwort {Asplcnium 

 marimim) grew in tufts. These caves must be very convenient 

 for the operations of the illicit distiller, who still carries on his 

 operations in the Alligin district, on the opposite shore of Loch 

 Torridou. The Excise have made several seizures in this 



