The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



record time. Loch an Eatharna in Coll gives rather more 

 shelter than the landing place on Tiree, and so it was possible 

 to put ashore the mails and a few half-fainting passengers 

 who moaned piteously and incessantly. I think that on this 

 occasion the unfortunate passengers for Kilchoan were deserv- 

 ing of more than a little sympathy. They had joined the boat 

 at Tobermory expecting to be set down at their journey's 

 end after half an hour's sail through comparatively land- 

 locked waters. As it -was, they perforce endured at least 

 eight hours of wildest Atlantic storm, and ultimately were set 

 ashore at Kilchoan late in the afternoon in a state of collapse. 

 As the captain quaintly observed, " They have indeed had 

 their ninepence worth." (Ninepence being the fare from 

 Tobermory to Kilchoan.) 



Other memories are of still and frosty days of winter, 

 days of setting out from the Island of Mull and looking 

 back on to the snow-capped hills bathed in the rosy light 

 of the dawn. Save for the slight heave of the Atlantic, the 

 waters were glassy calm on these days. As we neared Loch 

 an Eatharna in Coll one clear morning of mid-winter that I 

 remember, the sun rose red and big from behind the summit 

 of Ben More and flooded the island before us in its rays. 

 One saw far afield these clear mornings, and the sea was 

 wrapped in quietness and mystery those early hours before 

 the coming of the sun. 



And with the lengthening of the day, and the coming of 

 the dry weather, one might see, when sailing the Passage 

 of Tiree of a fine March morning, many heather fires burning 

 on the hills of Mull above Calgary, on Ulva's Isle, perhaps, 

 or on Ben More itself, and again on the high country of 

 Ardnamurchan. One great fire I remember seeing far away 

 to the nor'ard 1 . It was, I think, on Skye, and the whole of 

 the horizon was blotted out in the blue smoke. And very 

 good did the scent of the fires seem as it was wafted out on the 

 sea. On one occasion, after a long spell of dry, frosty 

 weather, some of the hill fires got the upper hand of those 



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