ARRIVAL AT LEITH. 295 



sions should be sold en masse and the pro- 

 ceeds then divided with a view to their 

 immediate convertibility into brandy. As 

 we declined to give any decision on this 

 delicate point, the last we heard of it was, 

 that they had called in the intervention of 

 the merchants who had acted as our agents, 

 and I think it not improbable that these 

 gentlemen settled the matter somewhat after 

 the manner in which the oyster of the fable 

 was partitioned by the referee in that notable 

 case. 



We sailed on the 15th, and as we had ex- 

 perienced north-east winds all the way from 

 Leith to Hammerfest, it was quite to be ex- 

 pected in the nature of things that we should 

 have south-west ones all the way back. TVe 

 did so, and in addition we had an awful 

 hustling from the equinoctial gales in the 

 end of the month. We religiously avoided 

 Lerwick this time, for fear the famishing 

 population might storm the yacht to get pos- 

 session of our cargo of venison, and at last 

 cast anchor in Leith Roads on Sunday the 

 2nd of October. 



Por the first few days the climate of Scot- 

 land seemed oppressively hot, and I could 



V 4 



