The Twin Giants. 359 



with only their tops peering up out of the mist, at 

 others again with their whole forms visible but cloud- 

 like or shadowy, while yet again at times they may 

 be completely lost as though there were no such land 

 existing. 



On the left of the view is a point of the island of 

 Great Cumbrae itself, the point called Portloy already 

 mentioned, beyond which may be seen, across one arm 

 of the Clyde, the hills of the Ayrshire coast, shaped, 

 it is said, in days of yore by glacial action. 



On the projecting point of Little Cumbrae may in 

 general be descried a strong square fortress. Far down 

 on the opposite coast, at Portincross, is another castle, 

 twin brother to that on Little Cumbrae point. In some 

 prehistoric time, how far distant from the glacial age 

 is open only to conjecture, these twin towers were 

 erected by twin brothers, giants, who had but one 

 hammer between them. With power equal to their 

 fraternal affection they hurled it to and fro across the 

 intervening miles of water, and there, on the opposite 

 points, the two towers still stand to confound the 

 doubts of the incredulous. 



It scarcely needs romance and myth to add their 

 interest, such as it may be, to the charms of the 

 scenery. Cloud and sunshine, mist and storm, contrive 

 to give to sea and sky an endless diversity, and to 

 combine them with the forms and colours of islands 

 and islets, rocks and mountains, shores and shipping 

 and wooded banks, into- a hundred different attractive 

 or imposing pictures. 



" Fern Bank " itself can scarcely be entered without 

 the attention of the visitor being calkd to dredges or 



