EEMINISCENCES OF THE LEWS. 61 



beds every morning with his guns to notify his 

 readiness to sail, and by constant boats, always 

 attended with part of the crew's band, to say 

 he would not sail. Of course he always dined 

 with us every day, and, though we were tired, 

 stupefied — crushed, in short — his powers of 

 noise seemed to increase in proportion to our 

 prostration. At last, one night, he invented a 

 new species of torture. He took two plates 

 with rough borders, and rubbed and clattered 

 them together, producing so excruciatingly 

 painful and discordant an uproar — I can give 

 it no other name — that some of our party 

 rushed out of the room to preserve their 

 senses. I think one day more would have sent 

 us all to the nearest lunatic asylum, when, 

 fortunately, the next morning — a bright, clear, 

 frosty morning — a small steamer came into the 

 loch, Fred having sent to Stornoway to beg 

 the agent to send round the first steamer that 

 turned up for us, and rescued us from our 

 tormentor's grasp ; and we steamed away most 

 gladly, leaving him nothing but the high hills 

 to awaken with his noises. 



By-the-bye, it is worthy of remark that next 

 summer, as we all steamed back again into. 

 Loch Seaforth joyfully, but a little subdued 

 with two or three nights on board the steamer 



