1 8 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR, 



to call a pair of these primitive-looking shoes my own, and 

 no sooner was the wish expressed than straightway one 

 islander furnished me with leather, and another set to work 

 upon the shoes. When I came to speak of remuneration, 

 however, the islanders shook their heads. ' " No, no, not from 

 the Witness : there are not many that take our part, and the 

 Witness does." I hold the shoes, therefore, as my first re- 

 tainer, determined, on all occasions of just quarrel, to make 

 common cause with the poor islanders. 



The view from the anchoring ground presents some very 

 striking features. Between us and the sea lies Eilean Chais- 

 teil, a rocky trap islet, about half a mile in length by a few 

 hundred yards in breadth ; poor in pastures, but peculiarly 

 rich in sea-weed, of which John Stewart used, he informed 

 me, to make finer kelp, ere the trade was put down -by act 

 of Parliament, than could be made elsewhere in Eigg. This 

 islet bore, in the remote past, its rude fort or dun, long since 

 sunk into a few grassy mounds ; and hence its name. On 

 the landward side rises the island of Eigg proper, resembling 

 in outline two wedges placed point to point on a board. The 

 centre is occupied by a deep angular gap, from which the 

 ground slopes upward on both sides, till, attaining its extreme 

 height at the opposite ends of the island, it drops suddenly 

 on the sea. In the northern rising ground the wedge-like 

 outline is complete ; in the southern one it is somewhat mo- 

 dified by the gigantic Scuir, which rises direct on the apex of 

 the height, i. e., the thick part of the wedge ; and which, seen 

 bows-on from this point of view, resembles some vast donjon- 

 keep, taller from base to summit, by about a hundred feet, 

 than the dome of St Paul's. The upper slopes of the island 

 are brown and moory, and present little on which the eye may 

 rest, save a few trap terraces with rudely columnar fronts ; 

 its middle space is mottled with patches of green, and studded 

 with dingy cottages, each of which this morning, just a little 



