CALM JtWJD ST01(M 91 



on the barrier wall of Ben Slioch, rising far behind 

 them. 



And then before a stronger breeze, with the storm-jib 

 up, with two reefs in the mainsail, and with the sea 

 rushing along the scuppers, we left the point of Rona 

 and the rugged lines of Skye, we rounded the headland 

 of Rhu Ruagh, and, as night came down, dropped anchor 

 in the upper reaches of Loch Torridon, under the shadow 

 of the mountains. 



It is a gloomy spot. The great, bare hills seem 

 to darken half the sky, and among the few houses 

 on its shore, there seems no mean between the stately 

 hunting-lodge and the rude hovels of the miserable 

 crofters. 



We spent the evening on the shore, landing on a 

 little beach among the drifted sea-wrack, where the 

 waves had strewn soft-tinted scallop-shells, and bright 

 echinus whose rich purple colouring seemed to glow 

 among the olive weed. All along high-water mark some 

 brilliant leaves had drawn a crimson line. The sand- 

 stone rocks lifted worn and weathered heads through a 

 forest of bracken that the autumn sun had already 

 touched with gold ; while the fringe of birches standing 

 round showed silvery stems through thin veils of dying 

 leaves. We made our camp on the floor of a cavern 

 which the waves had carved in the low cliff. No sound 

 disturbed the solitude, save when at times the lazy sea 

 lifted the long weed upon the threshold, or when a 

 gnarled and stunted aspen rooted in a crevice overhead 

 shivered in the evening air. Every chink in the dark 



