The Land of the Hills and the Glens 



2. OCTOBER 



OCTOBER has been a month with an unenviable record, 

 for it brought with it weather which, for its wildness, has 

 not been equalled during living memory. And yet its open- 

 ing day was of midsummer warmth, with a sky of deep 

 blue and flecked with white fleecy clouds, and not the veriest 

 trace of a swell on the surface of the Atlantic. I remember 

 this day well, for duty took me to a remote island, sunbathed 

 in fine weather, but drenched with sea spray during wild 

 storms, and I thought that never at any season had I seen 

 it so altogether quiet and peaceful. As I crossed the sound 

 the wild, spirit-like call of a greenshank on migration 

 awaked the echoes, and on my way I passed buzzards 

 and ravens sailing contentedly in the sunshine. But 

 that afternoon a ring of rainbow colours was formed 

 round the sun, and it is rarely indeed that this is seen 

 unless it be to herald a coming storm or a spell of unsettled 

 weather. 



The weather broke on the third of the month, and strong 

 winds, with rain, were experienced almost daily till the 

 1 5th, when a spell of more settled weather set in. During 

 the first period the wildest night was that of iith-i2th, 

 when a torrential rainfall, with thunder and lightning, and 

 accompanied by a gale from the west, visited the whole of 

 the western Highlands. A rainfall of 4^ inches was 

 measured at Fort William during a period of little over 

 twelve hours, while at Achnasheen, in Ross-shire, over 

 4.60 inches of rain fell during the same period. On the 

 I2th I saw numbers of Arctic skuas, both adult and im- 

 mature birds, sheltering from the storm in a quiet arm 

 of the sea where I had never before seen them. They had 

 apparently been on their southward migration, and had 

 been blown too far in to the east, for I should think that 

 their usual line of flight must be considerably to the 

 westward of where I saw them. There were many gulls 

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