JUNE, 1883. 315 



behind, and anything in the way of incubation is still 

 possible. Three porpoises are disporting in our own 

 loch ere we leave it, and as they have been there for 

 some few weeks must be finding fish of some sort. Sea 

 trout have been leaping occasionally of late, but very few 

 on the whole, "and they must be up at the head of the 

 loch lying near the mouth of the rivers, which have been 

 too low to admit of their ascent. A shoal of small fish 

 dashed past our keel the other evening, which appeared 

 to be the larger species of sand eels (Ammodytes) ; and 

 skate are still falling to the spear as they come shoreward 

 to spawn. A few razor-bills are swimming in Loch 

 Linnhe, having evidently finished their labours of incuba- 

 tion, as we know no place in the neighbourhood where 

 they breed. 



What a shout ! and wild with excitement the boys 

 almost tumble headlong into the sea in their efforts to 

 be first to play Robinson Crusoe on this desert isle, with 

 the wild goats on the edge of the cliffs and the sea birds 

 screaming at the invaders. What a disenchantment 

 when an old she goat actually came up to inquire the 

 meaning of the frantic rush at her kid by a youngster 

 that had succeeded by superhuman exertions in getting 

 hold of its tail. Alas for Robinson Crusoe, the pursuit 

 of wild goats has to be exchanged for a butterfly net. 

 We scramble round the shore to find the nests of the 

 gulls mostly inhabited by a rotten egg, or a bundle of 

 animated fluff. " Bring me a young gull " is the last 

 request we heard ere our boat left the shore, and here 

 are several of the little fellows, still as death, lying in 

 crevices of the rock, which here is all on end in thin 

 laminous strata. A halt is called again and again as we 

 passed a gravel bank or rocky promontory. Look care- 



