SABBATH ON SHIP-BOARD. 263 



day more effectively than could be done in our way, with- 

 out an officiating minister. We are now settled again in 

 the cabin quietly at our books, of which there are several 

 very good ones on board, and so I shall not set a bad 

 example by any longer continuing my Sunday log. I 

 hope we may be able to cut across to Stornoway to- 

 morrow ; but the strong south-west wind which still pre- 

 vails, and the consequent sea upon the Minch, may very 

 possibly debar our running out." 



TO HIS DAUGHTER. 



" Oban, Friday, Oct. 4, 1850. 



" We lay very snugly at Kyle Sku for a couple of 

 days. While writing there in the cabin we had a heavy 

 fall of rain and hail, which almost darkened our day- 

 lights ; and it was a curious coincidence that, in turning- 

 over some papers in my desk during that portentous 

 interval, I fell upon an unanswered note from Professor 

 Airy, the Astronomer Eoyal, in which, respecting his pro- 

 gress through Sutherland, he says, ' In crossing from Kyle 

 Sku to Loch Inver we had a storm of wind and rain far 

 surpassing in its kind anything that I had ever seen.' 



" After a quiet Sunday night we left Kyle Sku early 

 on Monday, and made a successful run to Stornoway. 

 Amongst other estates, Mr Matheson, who lately returned 

 from the east, has bought this great island of Lews, 



