42 WITH NATURE AND A CAMERA. 



the few mouth fuls of luscious grass for three or 

 four days. That any sane being should risk so 

 much for so little seemed to me incredible. 



Captain McCallum told me an amusing anecdote 

 about a poor old woman who accompanied her kins- 

 men on a journey from St. Kilda to Harris in the 

 days when they used to visit the latter place in 

 their large boat. On the occasion in question night 

 fell before a landing was effected, and when they 

 did succeed in getting ashore it was on an un- 

 known part of the coast. In searching for some 

 kind of habitation the old woman accidentally got 

 separated from her companions, and fell in with 

 an object of supernatural brilliancy at which she 

 marvelled greatly a lighthouse. It being a sultry 

 night the keeper had left the door open, that he 

 might benefit by the improved ventilation. The 

 old woman mounted the tower stairs in great awe, 

 and when she came into the presence of the attend- 

 ant and the dazzling brilliancy of his lanterns' rays 

 she fell on her knees and began to address him as 

 the Almighty. The man was, on his part, so startled 

 that he concluded the aged St. Kildan was some 

 hag from the nether regions, to which he bade her 

 get back in language more forcible than polite. 



A somewhat similar thing is said to have hap- 

 pened near London in the early days of ballooning, 

 when an aeronaut alighted in a ploughed field at 

 Coulsdon, in Surrey. A labourer who happened to 

 be working close by at the time was so overcome 

 with fear at the unusual sight that when asked the 

 name of the place by the man who had dropped 

 from the clouds, he fell on his knees and replied : 

 " Coulsdon, if you please, God Almighty!" 



The St. Kildans enjoy a plentiful supply of 

 good water: how good I will leave poor old Martin 



