NOETHEEN SCOTLAND. 353 



Jura — or rather Diura ; that is, " Stag Island " * — and Islay, the one covered with 

 lofty mountains rising to a height of 2,566 feet, the other the most fertile and 

 best cultivated of the Hebrides, and rich in metals. The narrow " sound " which 

 separates these islands from the peninsula of Kintyre is navigable, but owing to 

 its swift tidal currents it is dangerous to small vessels. Two of these currents 

 meet between Jura and the small island of Searba, producing a tide of double 

 height. The passage of this strait is attended with peril when the tide changes, 

 more especially if the wind blows in a direction contrary to its current and 

 towards the rocks. At such times no vessel would venture to approach this 

 fearful " race," which the Gaels very appropriately call Coirebhreacain, or 

 Corryvrekan ; that is, " Caldron of the Sea." The velocity of the current is 

 variously estimated at 10 or 13 miles, f Of all the currents in the seas of Scotland 

 that of Coirebhreacain is most dreaded ; in its violence it is the equal of the more 

 famous maelstrom amongst the Norwegian Lofoten. 



"We already know something of the character of the climate of Northern 

 Scotland. Essentially maritime, even more so than that of Southern England, 

 it is also very damp and of surprising equability. The atmosphere is nearly 

 always saturated with moisture, at least on the western coast, where the clouds, 

 arrested by the high mountains, almost incessantly descend in rain or snow, the 

 latter, however, but rarely remaining long upon the ground. Rain falls at 

 all seasons of the year, destroying the rocks and swelling the mosses of the bogs. 

 Scotland is most emphatically a land of mists, through which the heroes of 

 Ossian loom like fleeting shadows. In the songs of the bards Skye is the 

 " Island of Clouds," Mull the " Island of Gloom," whilst the northern navigators 

 knew the sea around the Orkneys as the Libersee, or " Viscous Ocean." The 

 Gaels have five elements, for to fire, water, earth, and air they add mist. 



The great contrast between the long nights of winter and the long days of 



summer is compensated by its equability of temperature. Even in the Orkneys, 



in the fifty-ninth degree of latitude, mariners may reckon in summer upon a 



hundred successive days on which print may easily be read at midnight, whilst 



in winter there occurs an equal number of very short days followed by a long 



night, occasionally lit up by the aurora borealis. The winds are high, and storms 



frequent ; but though the atmosphere be ever so much agitated, its temperature is 



nearly always the same. The mean annual temperature in the Scotch islands 



amounts to 45° Fahr., while that of winter is about 40° Fahr. The dark months 



pass away without frost ; but the summers have no heat, and the year, as a whole, 



is, so to speak, of a neutral complexion. + Several southern plants requiring only 



moisture and mild winters flourish in Scotland, and on the margins of the lakes 



of Sutherland fuchsias grow in the open air. But in the Orkneys the heat 



of summer is not sufficient for most of our vegetables ; trees do not grow 



spontaneously ; and even the service-tree and ash succeed only under careful shelter 



of walls. But though the surface of the islands be barren and naked, the sea 



* MacCullocli, " A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland." 



t Athenœum, '26th August, 18(i4. 



X Charles Martins; Gast. de SaporLa, Revue des Deux-Mondes, iniy 1st, 1871. 



132 



