XXIX 



A STALK ON SCARBA 

 1900 



IT was a truly perfect day on Scarba. Bright, glorious 

 sunshine, the air clear and transparent ; no cloud, no 

 mist, nothing to interfere with the most extensive range of 

 vision. All outlines were sharply defined against green sea 

 or hlue sky ; the mountain ranges on the Argyllshire mainland, 

 those on Jura and Mull, as also the many smaller islands and 

 innumerable rocks, and not outlines merely, but details, stood 

 revealed clearly as though seen through a glass. 



Scarba itself, a green mountain rising out of the sea, forms 

 a very pretty picture as we approach it from the mainland ; 

 a pedestal of dark rock covered with yellow seaweed a foreground 

 of bracken and grass, patches of oak, mountain-ash now covered 

 profusely with scarlet berries, of birch and alder, hazel and 

 larch, the remainder being filled in by the gently rising 

 mountain clothed in grass, heather, now in full bloom, giving 

 colour, rushes, and moss. The west coast alone is precipitous 

 and very rocky, and carries little vegetation, thanks to Atlantic 

 gales, to the full fury of which it is so frequently exposed. 

 This coast, inhospitable and wild as it is, is the home of the 

 wild goats, descendants of those mentioned by Tennant in 

 Lightfoot's "Flora Scotica " as long ago as 1777. Originally, 

 I believe, these were white, and many are so still, but several 

 black and brown goats having been imported long years ago 

 from Colonsay to strengthen the blood, the result is a great 

 variety of colouring. They are very wild, shaggy creatures, 



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