OCTOBER, 1 88 1. 77 



operations would only be sampled in showers. Cart 

 after cart, heavily laden with rushes, and strongly-growing 

 marsh grass, have been passing from Barcaldine to thatch 

 the now completed stacks, and repair the old-fashioned 

 roofs of the cottages and byres, for our population is 

 gradually awakening to the value of their straw to an ex- 

 tent never before displayed ; and so far as this wild pro- 

 duct of the Barcaldine woods can be procured and 

 utilised, to that extent is the artificially grown product 

 saved as winter fodder and bedding for their stock. 

 This woodland and upland growth, however, can only be 

 obtained through the courtesy of the shooting tenant, 

 and at such times as the game will be least disturbed ; 

 and considering this, and the ordinary lethargy of the 

 neighbourhood over small savings, it was quite remarkable 

 the promptitude and wide spread energy displayed by 

 those who could make use of the thatching. The shores 

 of our seas have been so severely handled all the season 

 that little was thrown up during these gales, partly, no 

 doubt, because the tides were varying so little at neap. 

 All along the shores of Loch Creran the " waning of the 

 year " was of the most marked description, and the line 

 of seaweed that marked high water during the gales was 

 rolled into a huge rope, with a line of parti-coloured 

 leaves just beyond, succeeded again by a band of yellow 

 needles from the fir trees, and yet again by an infinitely 

 finely-ground "olla podrida " from the particles of crushed 

 leaves broken up in the war of elements. Along the stretch 

 of beach we traversed, the whole was swept as with a 

 mighty besom ; and a series of mussel beds, lying with the 

 peculiar vicious propensity of this shellfish on the out- 

 look for naked feet, and with their sharpest points upper- 

 most, were severely handled for their perverse peculiarity. 



