258 ceuises. 



natural grandeur. There were no boats in, but, on de- 

 scending to the lowest ledge, I found a forlorn old gray- 

 headed man, of a very wizard-like aspect, sitting among a 

 few herring barrels. A sort of twilight gloom pervades 

 the place even at noon-day. You look upwards between 

 two enormous precipices to a strip of sky, the contrast of 

 colours being marked and peculiar. The deep green sea 

 is at your feet, then upwards a depth of darkness, till the 

 eye catches the sunshine on the overhanging crags of one 

 side, the other being as black as pitch, and then above all 

 the bright blue sky seen as if from the bottom of a 

 dungeon from whence there could be no escape. However, 

 I did escape, though with a heaving chest, as I toiled my 

 upward way, lying down sometimes on my hands and 

 knees, both to rest exhausted nature and to enjoy a peep 

 over the rocky ledges at those extraordinary prison walls." 



TO HIS DAUGHTER 



" Kyle Sku, in Sutherland, 

 Saturday, 2&th Sept. 1850. 



" I shall take it for granted that you have by this time 

 returned from Billholm, and are now once more at Wood- 

 ville. You have no idea what trouble my friends and I 

 have had with your letters — how we have turned them 

 upside down, and read them from the other side, holding 



