SEPTEMBER 357 



extreme limit of the productive or feeding power of the land in 

 good seasons, that is, if wars and epidemics are absent. Then 

 come famines from failure of crops, or other distresses, and at 

 once the problem presents itself in an acute form. With it 

 arise also the inevitable quarrels between the owners and the 

 occupiers of the soil. 



September 27. Yesterday was our last day's shooting. In 

 looking for partridge on the Crossapol bents we came upon a spot 

 so remarkable that it deserves mention. There, in the heart of 

 the bents, with a ridge between it and the sea, lay a circular plain 

 buried in white sand, which gave to it an appearance that can cnly 

 be called weird. Indeed, were I an artist wishing to depict the 

 site of the city from which Lot fled, I should find inspiration in 

 that plain. Also here there was, if not a city, at least a dwelling- 

 place of men, for the remains of houses are to be seen buried in 

 the blowing sand, and, what is more curious still, the outlines of 

 round huts. Who built these huts or to what age they belong 

 nobody seems to know. 



This morning we bid farewell to our host and departed south. 

 But it is not always easy to escape from Coll, and in the grey dark 

 of a winter morning many and anxious are the inquiries as to the 

 strength and direction of the wind. 



' I doubt ye'll no win to her. It's blawin' hard from the sou'- 

 east,' said the old butler, ' her ' being, of course, the steamer, 

 which should be off Ardnagour about eight o'clock. However, we 

 breakfasted and started. When we arrived at the harbour there 

 were no signs of the Fingal, but presently along the cable came the 

 ominous intelligence that she had been unable to communicate 

 with Tiree, the island beyond us. Now we began to think that it 

 would be our fate to stop on Coll for longer than we were expected. 



There are terrible tales of the adventures of visitors attempting 

 to quit Coll. One gentleman, who had most urgent reasons for 

 reaching the mainland, is said to have driven to that harbour 

 three times a week for a fortnight, only on each occasion to see 



