THE CRUISE OF THE STEAM LAUNCH cxxi 



already : one during which the population of Ullapool, to a babv, 

 was harnessed to her hurrahing and the other in which the 

 same population sat with its legs over a little pier, watching 

 Frewen and Bernie getting up steam for the first time.' The 

 Purgle was got with educational intent ; and it served its purpose 

 so well, and the boys knew their business so practically, that 

 when the summer was at an end, Fleeming, Mrs. Jenkin, Freweri 

 the engineer, Bernard the stoker, and Kenneth Robertson a 

 Highland seaman, set forth in her to make the passage south. 

 The first morning they got from Loch Broom into Gruinard bay. 

 where they lunched upon an island ; but the wind blowing up 

 in the afternoon, with sheets of rain, it was found impossible to 

 beat to sea ; and very much in the situation of castaways upon 

 an unknown coast, the party landed at the mouth of Gruinard 

 river. A shooting lodge was spied among the trees ; there 

 Fleeming went ; and though the master Mr. Murray was from 

 home, though the two Jenkin boys were of course as black as 

 colliers, and all the castaways 'so wetted through that, as they 

 stood in the passage, pools formed about their feet and ran 

 before them into the house, yet Mrs. Murray kindly entertained 

 them for the night. On the morrow, however, visitors were to 

 arrive ; there would be no room and, in so out of the way a 

 spot, most probably no food for the crew of the Purgle ; and on 

 the morrow about noon, with the bay white with spindrift and 

 the wind so strong that one could scarcely stand against it, they 

 got up steam and skulked under the land as far as Sanda Bay. 

 Here they crept into a seaside cave, and cooked some food ; but 

 the weather now freshening to a gale, it was plain they must 

 moor the launch where she was, and find their way overland to 

 some place of shelter. Even to get their baggage from on board 

 was no light business ; for the dingy was blown so far to leeward 

 every trip, that they must carry her back by hand along the 

 beach. But this once managed, and a cart procured in the 

 neighbourhood, they were able to spend the night in a pot-house 

 at Ault Bea. Next day, the sea was unapproachable ; but the 

 next they had a pleasant passage to Poolewe, hugging the cliffs, 

 the falling swell bursting close by them in the gullies, and the 



