. CO USINL Y INGRA TITUDE. 38 1 



store. It must be just at hand ; so haul up your boats high and 

 dry ; take down your nets from the drying-poles, and put them in 

 a place of safety. Stay thankfuUy at home, and let the herring 

 fishing stand over till the predicted gales have come and gone. 

 Many a gallant fellow at this moment afloat would be glad to have 

 his foot like you on tarra firma : a chas air talamh tioram were 

 the words, — his foot on dry land." With some such remarks as 

 these, we sent the men home, still wondering, however ; and within 

 a couple of hours the storm was upon us with a loud prolonged 

 shriek, that showed how thoroughly in earnest it was. Timeously 

 warned, no danger was done in our district, and we are now 

 unanimous in speaking with the utmost respect of the Atlantic 

 cable in connection with storm warnings from the Western Conti- 

 nent. These telegraphic warnings from America, by the way, of 

 coming storms are of the utmost importance and value, more par- 

 ticularly to the western shores of the British Islands. We have no 

 doubt at all that on the western seaboard of Scotland alone many 

 valuable lives were saved, as well as much valuable property, by 

 the submarine cable notice that put us all on our guard with 

 reference to the gale that raged on the 27th of October, and for 

 several days subsequently. We wonder if from Britain or the Con- 

 tinent any of the terrible easterly storms of last winter were tele- 

 graphed to America — timeously and purposely telegraphed, that is — 

 so as to be of benefit to our Transatlantic cousins, as their recent tele- 

 grams have been to us. We fear not. But now at least it is surely 

 a matter of the merest courtesy and cousinly goodwill that we 

 be prepared and ready to send them betimes telegraphic messages 

 of aU our easterly storms, in return for similar favours on their 

 part in respect to those that are westerly. 



Eeading over the foregoing paragraph, which the reader may 

 see was written eurrente calamo — at a gallop, as it were, and with- 

 out a check, as the foxhunter says — we find that we have used the 



