20 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



Next morning I woke with the comfortable sensa- 

 tion that the yacht was once more steadily progressing 

 through the water, but shortly after I had completed 

 a hasty toilet and come on deck the atmosphere 

 thickened, and we were soon once more enveloped 

 in dim and almost impenetrable mist. It was quite 

 unsafe to anchor ; we were in the strong tide near 

 the point of Craignish, and there was nothing for it 

 but to try to make our way through the " Door," the 

 narrow strait which forms the entrance to Loch 

 Crinan through which the flood and ebb rush boiling 

 and eddying at the rate of eight or nine knots an 

 hour at spring tides. We were in familiar waters, 

 where many a time both my wife and myself had 

 fished round the rocky islands for saith and lythe, 

 but the shapes of the rocks as they loomed gigantic 

 through the fog all looked the same. We manoeuvred 

 about, with my wife as the one most familiar with the 

 locality looking out on the prow, and at last, when 

 she reported that she certainly recognised the point 

 of Craignish, we faced the channel and were soon 

 safely through the strait, quickly passed Rabbit 

 Island, anchored under the old castle of Duntroon at 

 about nine in the morning, and were home in time for 

 a late breakfast. 



All is well that ends well ! but I had undergone 

 an experience somewhat trying in a friend's yacht. 

 The risk to passengers and crew was infinitesimal in 

 the calm weather and always close to land, but we 

 might easily have done serious damage to the yacht 

 so generously placed at our disposal. I am only a 

 moderate sailor, but I infinitely prefer a blow to a fog. 

 As it turned out we need not have cut short our visit, 



