CHAPTER XXV 



THE ROSS OF MULL 



AWAY to the west of Ben More, and hidden from the main- 

 land by this and sister hills, a long and narrow strip of 

 bog and moorland stretches out into the Atlantic. Some 

 twelve miles in length, it is given over almost entirely to 

 sheep, with a few crofts scattered along the margin of Loch 

 Scridain, and to a lesser extent on its southern shores which 

 are open to the Atlantic. 



To the lover of the wild in Nature the Ross must always 

 have a charm peculiar to itself, for its beauties are many, 

 and are apparent at every season of the year. Its southern 

 seaboard is exceptionally wild and grand. For miles the 

 cliffs rise sheer from the sea, reaching a height of well over 

 a thousand feet, and the coast is quite uninhabited except 

 for the wild goats which have their home there. Towards 

 the western extremity this coast becomes less precipitous, 

 and here there nestles the little crofting community of 

 Ulsgean, near to long white beaches of fine sand, the 

 most remote of them bearing the Gaelic name of "Traigh 

 Gheal." Bearing still west, the island of Erraid immortal- 

 ised in Stevenson's "Kidnapped " is reached, and the Sound 

 of lona, which acts as the western boundary of the Ross. 



Away to the south of Erraid lie the Torran Rocks, 

 avoided by all mariners who have not a thorough knowledge 

 of the coast, and stretching far out to sea. Even on a fine 

 summer day the Atlantic swell breaks white on these rocks. 

 Some of them are only a few feet above high water mark; 

 others show only at low water, and on a still day of winter, 

 when the surface of the sea is calm but when a heavy swell 

 rolls in from the south-west, the waves shoot in smoke-like 

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