IN THE HIGHLANDS 79 



wards to the Sound of Harris, and after going at the pace 

 of a snail for hours, and with innumerable tacks, we 

 reached Bun an t-struidh (the Stream End) or Ob (the 

 Pool), three miles west of Rodal, at one or two o'clock 

 in the afternoon. There we cast anchor, as the wind, 

 north-west, was dead against us and it was beginning 

 to blow very hard. We saw one seal in the water, but 

 not near enough to get at it. 



" We landed on Harris, and I like the appearance of 

 the country much better than that of North Uist. The 

 hills are much higher, and I heard that the country was 

 more fertile. The here gives wonderful returns, they 

 say — sometimes twenty or twenty-five fold. Our 

 sailors got in fresh water for the vessel, for fear we 

 might run short on our passage to the ' back of beyond.' 

 After a lounge about for some time a young girl addressed 

 us in Gaelic, and asked whether we should like to go 

 to the Ladies' Flowering Work School, so Osgood and 

 I set off with her, and made enquiries as we went. The 

 school was established by the Countess of Dunmore, 

 whose only son, the proprietor, is a minor about twelve 

 years of age. We reached the school-house, a neat 

 little building, in about twenty minutes. Nothing mental 

 is taught there, only the embroidering of collars and 

 sleeves. The teacher was a young Irishwoman, who 

 mentioned that she was under the guidance of a society 

 of ladies for the promotion of fancy work, and that they 

 had offered her services to Lady Dunmore, but that 

 they were going to remove her next year so that other 

 places might have the advantage of her to instruct them, 

 and whichever girl she recommended to Lady Dunmore 



