224 THE CRUISE OF THE BETSEY ; OR. 



of the incoherent upper strata against under strata coherent 

 and damp. I remained ten days in the island, and went over 

 all my former ground, but succeeded in making no further dis- 

 coveries. 



On the morning of Wednesday, June 25th, we set sail for 

 Isle Ornsay, with a smart breeze from the north-west. The 

 lower and upper sky was tolerably clear, and the sun looked 

 cheerily down on the deep blue of the sea ; but along the 

 higher ridges of the land there lay long level strata of what 

 the meteorologists distinguish as parasitic clouds. When 

 every other patch of vapour in the landscape was in motion, 

 scudding shorewards from the Atlantic before the still-increas- 

 ing gale, there rested along both the Scuir of Eigg and the 

 tall opposite ridge of the island, and along the steep peaks of 

 Bum, clouds that seemed as if anchored, each on its own 

 mountain-summit, and over which the gale failed to exert any 

 propelling power. They were stationary in the middle of the 

 rushing current, when all else was speeding before it. It has 

 been shown that these parasitic clouds are mere local con- 

 densations of strata of damp air passing along the mountain- 

 summits, and rendered visible but to the extent in which the 

 summits affect the temperature. Instead of being station- 

 ary, they are ever-forming and ever-dissipating clouds, clouds 

 that form a few yards in advance of the condensing hill, and 

 that dissipate a few yards after they have quitted it. I had 

 nothing to do on deck, for we had been joined at Eigg by 

 John Stewart ; and so, after watching the appearance of the 

 stationary clouds for some little time, I went below, and, 

 throwing myself into the minister's large chair, took up 

 a book. The gale meanwhile freshened, and freshened yet 

 more ; and the Betsey leaned over till her lee chain-plate lay 

 along in the water. There was the usual combination of 

 sounds beneath and around me, the mixture of guggle, clunk, 

 and splash, of low, continuous rush, and bluff, loud blow, 



