In Hebridean Waters 



Shearwaters dip in graceful flight across our bows, and a 

 fulmar petrel glides with much poetry of motion about the 

 boat, now banking swiftly, now sweeping just above the sur- 

 face of the ocean, and all the time with scarce a movement of 

 its wings. 



At the village of Arinagour, in Coll, a ferry boat meets us, 

 and from here we make for the Island of Tiree. 



A short halt at the pier here, and the roughest portion of 

 the day's run is commenced, to Castlebay, on Barra Island, 

 some forty miles to the north-west of Tiree — the course is 

 north-west by north a half north — and the most southerly of 

 the Outer Hebrides. 



The tide-swept and rocky Sound of Gunna passed, we at 

 once run into a very heavy Atlantic swell, the great waves 

 rolling past at high speed, and tossing the small steamer here 

 and there, to the discomfiture of the few remaining pas- 

 sengers. For some miles after leaving Tiree a number of 

 gulls follow the boat, receiving doles of bread and biscuits 

 from time to time. The gulls are soon joined by a single 

 solan, then two or three, until finally as many as half a dozen 

 of these birds of powerful flight are following in our wake. 

 To my considerable surprise, these gannets dive for the 

 bread along with the gulls, though they eat it with a certain 

 surprise, as though being, in their opinion, far inferior to the 

 portion of herring which they perhaps expected to find. One 

 solan is sound asleep on the water's surface, with head entirely 

 buried among its feathers. Only when the boat is a few 

 yards away does it awake, receiving the fright of its life and 

 shrieking loudly as it flies hastily away. So soundly do these 

 birds sleep at times that they are caught by the hand from a 

 small boat. 



About ten miles off Tiree the seas are heaviest, and on 

 this occasion unusually so for the season of the year. But 

 at length the conical peak of Hecla of Barra shows through 

 the misty air, and gradually we run into quieter waters, 

 reaching Castlebay towards seven o'clock in the evening — ^the 



87 



