OCTOBER, 1 88 1. 69 



and hail scudding over it in mad revelry. The hail was 

 such as we rarely see in this country, the average being 

 of the size of large peas, and so hard frozen that they 

 came dancing down our chimney, over a good fire, into 

 the middle of the room, and even after some time could 

 be picked up and found as hard as chips of ice. The 

 effects of such a gale as we have had, when it strikes 

 upon shallow water, is scarcely conceivable in the 

 rapidity with which it raises heavy waves. We were 

 watching a series of concrete ponds of only a foot or two 

 in depth and twelve yards long, on the foreshore in front 

 of our dwelling. Over this short range the wind tore in 

 fitful gusts, sending the accumulated wavelets dashing 

 over the further wall in a constant heavy wash. To 

 appearance it seemed as if they would have been emptied 

 entirely in a very short time ; and in reality they were 

 very rapidly reduced in depth of water, although the 

 wind veered continually, blowing from the south to north- 

 west and back again, throughout the three nights and two 

 days' gale. The very short duration of the gusts that 

 characterised this storm gave but little time for the growth 

 of heavy waves, but they seemed to make up in virulence 

 for the short time each lasted. One could better appreci- 

 ate the fact that a shallow sea like the German Ocean 

 gives especial facilities for the growth of a rough sea in a 

 short spell, after glancing at these vicious white fringes to 

 ponds but thirty-six feet long. No wonder that a shallow 

 sea is a dangerous one, and our Eastern coasts so 

 frequently and sorely tried. 



During the gale, which was especially bitter and keen 

 when from the north-west, various birds entered our loch, 

 and displayed unwonted familiarity. A large cormorant 

 was actually disporting at the mouth of the burn about 



