2 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



speculating upon our chances of fetching St. Kilda 

 on the morrow. As an instance of the weather- 

 wisdom of the natives of the Western Isles, I think 

 it worth while to record the prophecy of a shrewd 

 old man an inhabitant of Loch Boisdale at sun- 

 down on the twelfth. He said that on the following 

 day we should have a strong breeze from the south- 

 east in the morning, a shower about dinner-time, 

 and a south-westerly wind with sunshine in the 

 afternoon. 



Early on the morning of the thirteenth we arrived 

 at weird and lonely Obbe, our last calling place 

 before attempting to breast the rolling waves of the 

 Atlantic, and carry the, first news of the doings of 

 the outer lw#rld , Sufijrg- :the year of Grace eighteen 

 hundred and* ttin-ety^ix to the isolated folks living 



"Where the northern billows in thunder roar 

 And dash themselves to spray on Hirta's lonely shore." 



Our captain very much doubted whether we 

 should be able to land at St. Kilda on account of 

 a stiff breeze which was blowing from the very 

 worst of all possible points of the compass, viz. 

 the south-east. When the wind is in this quarter 

 it fills Village Bay the only place in which a 

 ship can find shelter with such fearful seas that 

 it is exceedingly dangerous to enter. 



The official pilot, a wrinkle-visaged, weather- 

 beaten old man, who came aboard at this place, 

 was, however, like the seer of Loch Boisdale, hope- 

 ful of an early change in the weather, and advised 

 a trial, 



Whilst landing two or three passengers, a 

 friend of mine showed me a small, whitewashed, 

 stone cairn, built upon a rock for the guidance of 



