46 A HARD PULL. 



Donald now went to the stern, and by working his 

 oar there helped to propel the boat, while Walter and I 

 took the remaining pair of oars, each of us being 

 occasionally relieved by Angus. In this manner we 

 kept steadily on our course ; and though in the middle 

 of the loch we seemed for some time to be making no 

 way at all, we succeeded, after a hard pull of nearly two 

 hours, in regaining the pier from whence we had put 

 out in the morning. The clouds had been meanwhile 

 gathering ; and though our passage had been latterly 

 smooth enough, for, after tacking across the loch, we 

 had coasted the last two miles, yet in the open part 

 of the loch we saw that it was becoming sufficiently 

 turbid to make us thankful that we had crossed so 

 soon. As we neared the pier some heavy raindrops 

 fell; and, these increasing, we were drenched to the 

 skin before we reached the hospitable roof of our host. 

 Our creel of fish were, after due inspection, speedily 

 transferred to the kitchen, and the next morning we 

 had the pleasure of seeing them all suspended in rows 

 along a wall in the back yard, split open, salted, and 

 left to dry in the sun. Cured in this manner they 

 form a staple article of food among the poorer classes ; 

 and few cottages are to be seen without some dried 

 haddocks, herrings, or cuddies hanging on their wall 

 beneath the eaves of the roof. The chief of these is 

 the haddock, a fish which varies greatly in size, being 

 sometimes taken as large as a good cod, though of- 

 tener about the size of a mackerel. There is a curious 

 legend connected with this fish. At a little distance 

 behind the gills it has two dark blotches, not unlike in 

 shape to the flaps of a saddle slightly elongated, and 

 extending, one on either side, from the ridge of the 

 back, where they meet, to about halfway down the 



