A SUMMER RAMBLE AMOXG THE HEBRIDES. 215 



tion of the island of Eigg, still about five miles distant, though 

 the boat from which they rose had not yet come in sight 

 " Some of my poor people," said the minister, " coming to 

 tug us ashore !" We were boarded in rather more than half 

 an hour after, for the sounds in the dead calm had preceded 

 the boat by miles, by four active young men, who seemed 

 wonderfully glad to see their pastor; and then, amid the 

 thickening showers, which had recommenced heavy as dur- 

 ing the night, they set themselves to tow us unto the har- 

 bour. The poor fellows had a long and fatiguing pull, and 

 were thoroughly drenched ere, about six o'clock in the evening, 

 we had got up to our anchoring ground, and moored, as usual, 

 in the open tide-way between Ettan Ghastett and the main 

 island. There was still time enough for an evening discourse, 

 and the minister, getting out of his damp clothes, went ashore 

 and preached. 



The evening of Sunday closed in fog and rain, and in fog 

 and rain the morning of Monday arose. The ceaseless patter 

 made dull music on deck and skylight above, and the slower 

 drip, drip, through the leaky beams, drearily beat time within. 

 The roof of my bed was luckily water-tight ; and I could look 

 out from my snuggery of blankets on the desolations of the 

 leakage, like Bacon's philosopher surveying a tempest from 

 the shore. But the minister was somewhat less fortunate, 

 and had no little trouble in diverting an ill-conditioned drop 

 that had made a dead set at his pillow. I was now a full 

 week from Edinburgh, and had seen and done nothing ; and, 

 were another week to pass after the same manner, as, for 

 aught that appeared, might well happen, I might just go 

 home again, as I had come, with my labour for my pains. 

 In the course of the afternoon, however, the weather unex- 

 pectedly cleared up, and we set out somewhat impatiently 

 through the wet grass, to visit a cave a few hundred yards 

 to the west of Faomh Fraing, in which it had been said the 



