CHAPTER XX 



EASAVAL OF SOUTH UIST 



STANDING at the extreme southern point of South 

 Uist, and overlooking the Sound of Barra, is the hill 

 of Easaval. No imposing mountain is this, but a small, 

 rounded hill Avith summit no more than 800 feet above the 

 Atlantic; yet from its top in fine, clear weather is a view 

 both wide and varied. 



The month of July, 1920, was one of the very worst for 

 many years in the Outer Hebrides, and fine days were few 

 and far between, but my base at Polachar was not more than 

 a couple of miles from the hill, and when at last a day of 

 calm, clear weather came to the islands, I was able to take 

 advantage of it and to visit the hill-top. At first the way 

 led beside the Sound of Barra, where on the shingle ringed 

 plover shepherded their young broods with anxiety, and 

 gannets passed north or south with steady flight, making for 

 their nesting site on distant St. Kilda, or on passage to 

 their far-off fishing grounds in Mull and beyond. Immedi- 

 ately below Easaval is a loch — Loch a' Choire by name — 

 holding many fine trout, unsurpassed in the excellence of 

 their flavour and their fighting qualities, and skirting the 

 loch I made my way to the hill-top along the norfherly ridge. 



Though the season was late — the date was July 26 — a 

 twite or mountain linnet was brooding her four pale-blue 

 eggs, with their dark-brown markings, in the shelter of a 

 heather bank, and not three feet distant a wren left her 

 domed nest containing half-grown young. Once the hen 

 twite was called off her nest by her mate, who fed her — ^she 

 meanwhile standing with quivering wings — on some choice 



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