A RUMMER BAUBLE AMONG THE HEBRIDES. 155 



them, apparently those of children ; and learned that they in- 

 dicated the places of two kelp-furnaces, things which have 

 now become comparatively rare along the coasts of the He- 

 brides. There was the low rush of tides all around, and the 

 distant voices from the shore, but no other sounds ; and, dim 

 in the moonshine, we could see behind us several spectral-look- 

 ing sails threading their silent way through the narrows, like 

 twilight ghosts traversing some haunted corridor. 



It was late ere we reached the opening of Isle Ornsay ; 

 and as it was still a dead calm, we had to tug in the Betsey 

 to the anchoring ground with a pair of long sweeps. The 

 minister pointed to a low-lying rock on the left-hand side of 

 the opening, a favourite haunt of the seal. " I took farewell 

 of the Betsey there last winter," he said. " The night had 

 worn late, and was pitch dark ; we could see before us scarce 

 the length of our bowsprit ; not a single light twinkled from 

 the shore ; and, in taking the bay, we ran bump on the skerry, 

 and stuck fast The water came rushing in, and covered over 

 the cabin-floor. I had Mrs Swanson and my little daughter 

 aboard with me, with one of our servantrmaids who had be- 

 come attached to the family, and insisted on following us from 

 Eigg ; and, of course, our first care was to get them ashore. 

 We had to land them on the bare uninhabited island yonder, 

 and a dreary enough place it was at midnight, in winter, with 

 its rocks, bogs, and heath, and with a rude sea tumbling over 

 the skerries in front ; but it had at least the recommendation 

 of being safe, and the sky, though black and wild, was not 

 stormy. I had brought two lanthorns ashore : the servant 

 girl, with the child in her lap, sat beside one of them, in the 

 shelter of a rock ; while my wife, with the other, went walk- 

 ing up and down along a piece of level sward yonder, waving 

 the light, to attract notice from the opposite side of the bay. 

 But though it was seen from the windows of my own house 

 by an attached relative, it was deemed merely a singularly- 



