28 COLONSAY 



the ground, and noticed by Pennant on his tour through the 

 island in 1769, are conspicuously seen oil the rising-ground 

 between Loch Fada and Port Mor. Stone cists or coffins 

 have been discovered in the cultivated ground near by. Dun 

 Meadhonach, an isolated knoll to the south, formed the site 

 of an easily defended fort. 



The neighbourhood of Port Mor is botanically one of the 

 most interesting in the island. The Wild Beet growing on 

 the sea-rocks, Celery-leaved Ranunculus on the sandy shore, 

 Parsley Dropwort at the edge of the brackish shore pools, 

 and the tiny Lesser Duckweed floating on the surface 

 of still waters, are among the local rarities not noticed 

 elsewhere. In the little gullies of the rocky northern 

 shore, amidst accumulations of shelly sand and decom- 

 posing seaweed, the glossy waving Sea Club-rush, the stout 

 Foxsedge, and the slender Juncus Gerardi grow in great 

 luxuriance. 



While the country's trade overseas was still being carried 

 on by sailing vessels, without lighthouses of which four are 

 now to be seen from Colonsay to warn them of the prox- 

 imity of dangerous rocks, hardly a winter passed without one 

 or more wrecks taking place on some part of the island. 

 The circumstances attending these losses are yet vividly re- 

 counted with more or less detail. Persons are living who 

 witnessed the wreck of the barque Clydesdale on Eilean- 

 nam-Ban at Port Mor during a storm in December 1848. 

 Bound for Glasgow from Charleston in South Carolina with a 

 cargo of cotton, the ship had been driven back, with sails torn, 

 from the Mull of Kintyre by contrary south-easterly winds, 

 which, veering westward, finally drove her on to the rocks. 

 Though built a short time previously on the Clyde, of the 

 toughest oak, the ill-fated vessel, under the pressure of the 

 huge seas that dashed over her, soon broke in two. Twelve 

 of the crew were rescued in fishing-boats by th6 natives, and 

 others were saved by clinging to the stern portion of the 



