ALLOA TO SKYE. 357 



benighted feeling as you look at them, with nothing 

 but mainland all round you. tf Snipes appear" is the 

 entry for the day in " Cuthbert Johnson's Farmers' 

 Almanac " ; and certainly there is a fine opening for 

 them in Skye, as three weeks of continuous rain had 

 left suction in abundance. 



Where the rooks go to at night is our great 

 puzzle, as there are only a few brown ashes to be 

 seen, but Skeabost Woods is their Aldershot. Its 

 direction is indicated by our friend somewhere to the 

 left beyond Loch Snizort, on whose blue waters 

 whole navies might ride. A pinnace is at anchor be- 

 hind the breakwater in Eraser's bay the snuggest 

 spot we have seen yet, with Ericstane tups in the 

 pastures, and a library we might winter on. Ben 

 Edera's snowy head warns the cottars that they must 

 gather in their oats ; but while they work at their 

 scanty sheaves in one part of the field, the cow- and 

 the keeries are alike busy at the other. The 

 cow is wonderfully ubiquitous. If the man is plait- 

 ing heather ropes, to keep the thatch on, she is rumi- 

 nating at his side ; if you go into a shop, it is any- 

 thing but certain that she may not look over the 

 counter. Some cottars have as many as 16 to 20 

 keeries, generally black and brown-faced. They kill 

 and salt the wedders and old ewes, and the lambs come 

 in from the hill and walk about with the family. 

 Strangers are generally told, in confidence, of a wed- 

 der which was salted in the seventeenth year of its 

 age. Not a goose or turkey is to be seen, but pigs 



