IN THE HIGHLANDS 83 



Well, I waited another hour, and on finding that instead 

 of being nearer we were fast receding, and that we might 

 now have the boat, as we had (against our will) gone 

 out of the little bay and exchanged its steep rugged rocks 

 for the wild ocean, I told Simon to put clothes on Osgood 

 in some sort of way and ordered the boat to the gangway. 

 Poor child, he looked most wretched. Putting on his 

 and my own swimming belts, we somehow or other got 

 into the boat. There was a heavy swell, but fortunately 

 no broken waves. I was not much alarmed, and said 

 nothing at any rate ; but the tutor and others who were 

 left on the Jessie watched us a little while, and then we 

 sank so low that they could not see us at all, and were 

 half afraid we had been swamped. But we had been 

 more mercifully dealt with, and landed at length quite 

 safely and comfortably on the shore of this wonderfully 

 striking, picturesque island. 



" I had been told there was but one small flat stone 

 on which one could land, and that the natives would 

 pull me up from it. That is not quite the case. There 

 are twenty or thirty yards of shore on which you might 

 put foot, but there is one spot more convenient than the 

 rest and yet not altogether good, for the rock is covered 

 with seaweed of the most slippery sort, and you are 

 almost sure to tumble on your nose. You can never 

 land when the wind is from the south-east, for that is the 

 direction of the bay, and a very little breeze thus raises 

 an awful swell. I was told by the people that the last 

 time the factor came to visit them he was three days 

 before he could land. When at last he did accomplish 

 it, it was by tying a rope round his body and throwing 



