ARRIVAL AT LEITH. 267 



them. The men who had houses and families 

 wished a division of the actual victuals (the "ipsa 



corpora, " as the Rev. Mr. calls the oatmeal 



which I have annually the honor of paying him 

 for), whereas the men who lived en garcon contend- 

 ed that the obvious intentions of the munificent 

 donors had been that the provisions should be sold 

 en masse, and the proceeds then divided with a view 

 to their immediate convertibility into brandy. As 

 we declined to give any decision on this delicate 

 point, the last we heard of it was, that they had 

 called in the intervention of the merchants who 

 had acted as our agents, and I think it not improb- 

 able that these gentlemen settled the matter some- 

 what after the manner in which the oyster of the 

 fable was partitioned by the referee in that notable 

 case. 



We sailed on the 15th, and as we had experienced 

 northeast winds all the way from Leith to Ham- 

 merfest, it was quite to be expected in the nature 

 of things that we should have southwest ones all 

 the way back. We did so, and in addition we had 

 an awful hustling from the equinoctial gales in the 

 end of the month. "We religiously avoided Lerwick 

 this time, for fear the famishing population might 

 storm the yacht to get possession of our cargo of 

 venison, and at last cast anchor in Leith Roads on 

 Sunday, the 2d of October. 



For the first few days the climate of Scotland 

 seemed oppressively hot, and I could sympathize 



