10 



CHAPTER II. 



PEOSPECTING THE LEWS AND THE CALLEENISH INN. 



IT was a fair, beautiful Sabbath morn, tliat 

 first day of my acquaintance with the 

 Lews ; but I confess we did not make the use 

 of it we might have done. All I did was to go 

 on shore to call upon Captain Burnaby, then 

 commanding the party of Royal Engineers em- 

 ployed in the survey of the island, to inquire 

 about his father, who had come up with us in 

 the steamer, and had suflTered horribly from sea- 

 sickness all the way. And if the visiting the 

 Lews had been productive of no other pleasure 

 than the great intimacy that took place between 

 myself and Burnaby, deep indeed would be my 

 gratitude to the said land. More of this here- 

 after. I was not struck much with anything 

 about Stornoway except the smells. We were 

 then about the end of June — the heart of the 

 herring-fishery season. It was very hot and 

 dry weather, and those acquainted with the 

 mysteries of herring-curing can imagine the 



