Wanderings of a Naturalist 



trailing lazily from her funnel, with a fair breeze on her 

 quarter. 



South-east, and set far into the Minch — it is nearer to 

 Skye than to the Harris coast— was the lonely Isle of Fladda 

 Chuain, where is said to be the site of a chapel of St. 

 Columba. Beyond it rose the high ground of the north of 

 Skye, and more to the south we could make out the flat-topped 

 hills known as MacLeod's Tables. The Cuchulain Hills 

 were indistinct, and their topmost slopes hidden in mist. 



Alpine plant life was scarce on Clisham. One missed the 

 delicate flowers of Silene acaulis and Azalea ^rocumhens — the 

 latter an essentially granite-loving plant, and so unlikely to be 

 found here. A few plants of the Alpine willow were growing 

 round the summit of the hill, and from a ledge of rock a 

 plant of rose-root bloomed. 



As we left the hill and reached the small tarns beneath, 

 the wind had dropped to the faintest of breezes, and north- 

 ward the sky was dark and thundery. At the loch side a 

 sandpiper with young broke the stillness with shrill cries of 

 alarm, and far above us a raven circled and croaked, while 

 on tireless wings the tribe of the gulls sailed high above the 

 hill-tops, or, soaring downwards, alighted on the waters of 

 the quiet hill loch, their plumage seeming the whiter against 

 its peat-stained waters and the grim black rocks that towered 

 behind it. 



86 



