36 HAPPY HUNTING-GROUNDS 



trees suitable for the purpose compelled the use of this 

 projecting rock, and the hole through which the rope 

 was passed still bears witness to the truth of the story. 

 The whole of the little kingdom, comprising the two 

 islands of Colonsay and Oronsay, contains only 12,000 

 acres, and numbers about 460 inhabitants. The two 

 islands are separated by a narrow strait which bears 

 the familiar name of the Strand. To a Londoner's 

 mind this carries with it the suggestion of a crowded 

 thoroughfare, with hurrying passengers thronging its 

 pavements, and divided by a stream of motor buses, 

 taxicabs, and a few specimens of the rapidly vanish- 

 ing hansom ; and yet I suppose that even our familiar 

 London Strand was once the border of a tidal river 

 whose sandbanks at low water were the haunt of 

 avocet, dunlin, ring plover, and a host of waders and 

 shore birds. The Colonsay Strand is dry at low 

 water, when carts and foot-passengers can pass between 

 the two islands ; but caution and a knowledge of the 

 tides is desirable, as the flood rises rapidly, and the 

 expanse of sand is soon turned into an arm of the sea 

 through which sailing-boats and yachts can pass. 

 There is a story that one yacht came in and anchored 

 half-way in what her captain imagined to be a 

 permanently navigable strait, to find itself shortly 

 afterwards lying over on its side in absolutely dry 

 ground. There is an anchorage here where a good- 

 sized yacht can lie in safety and shelter, but it can 

 only move out under suitable conditions of wind 

 and tide. I think the most useful sort of boat for a 

 wealthy proprietor of the property to acquire would 

 be a stout steam-trawler with powerful engines, small 

 enough and strong enough to lie stranded at low 



