MEMOIR. 29 



was always a delight to Graham and his friends, the pleasure 

 being enhanced perhaps by a spice of danger. The island is 

 surrounded by shoals and hidden dangers that at all times, 

 and very specially with certain winds and at certain states of 

 the tide, render the approach and landing matters to be gone 

 about with caution. Has the reader ever run the gauntlet 

 between a sunk rock on which the sea heavily breaks, and a 

 steep headland, every now and then reached by a heavier sea than 

 ordinary, rushing with foaming crest over the outlying rock ? 

 If so, he or she will understand and appreciate the excitement 

 often attending a landing on Soay. The landing effected, the 

 small island, though familiar to the usual members of the party, 

 seemed ever new and alive with fresh interest. 



" As the writer was sailing with Graham one day, and 

 passing along the west coast of lona, where the rocks are 

 highest, the latter stopped the boat and landed near the marble 

 quarry, asking his companion to look after the boat till his 

 return. He took the painter and anchor ashore with him, and 

 was soon lost to sight on the heights above. He had kept the 

 object of his landing a secret. Near this spot a cave runs 

 in from the shore ; it enters from the sea and forms a high 

 narrow fissure in the cliff, running inland for a considerable 

 distance, and naturally roofed in part. An opening occurs in 

 the level ground above, through which, on looking down the 

 white sandy bottom of the cave, can be seen at low water, or 

 when the tide is high, the sea washing still further inland, 

 where, at the extreme end, there is another funnel-shaped 

 opening to the upper world. Looking down the first opening, 



