ALLOA TO SKYE. 367 



looking as if they had been built by a wandering 

 band of free and accepted masons, or let down 

 by invisible hands. 



The sea journey back by The Clansman was rather 

 more lively; and again we passed Scalpa and 

 Raasay, in whose Sound Dr. Johnson lost his spurs 

 over the side of the boat. 



" O'er them mouldering, 

 The lonely sea bird crosses 

 With one waft of its wing ;" 



and we thought, if we could only dive and find them 

 encrusted with mollusca, what would'nt they letch at 

 Christie's? Falkirk October is at hand, and our 

 principal mission seems to be sailing up and down 

 bays, and shipping sheep and wool-packs. The 

 forecastle is quite a parliament of Cheviot and 

 and keeries of all colours, every twentieth with horns 

 as a standard-bearer. Cows, half shorthorn and half 

 Ayrshire, are pushed in from the piers, and a blue- 

 grey pony, which would have been a perfect palette 

 puzzle for Herring, is boxed up among hampers con- 

 taining a beagle and two black-and-tan setter puppies 

 for a Hampshire vicar. The two visitors whom we 

 left at Eigg on Friday seem to glory in their release ; 

 but barren as the island looks, hazel bushes at the 

 prow of the boat that brought them and the farmer 

 and his eight-score ewes, told of bosky dingles some- 

 where. Cheviots and cattle are its products, and its 

 cottars seek the lowland harvest; whereas Rum, 

 which is a wilder island, goes for deer and blackfaces 



