120 THE BIRDS OF lONA AND MULL. 



pany, and when a naturalist was looked on as a sort of out-of- 

 the-way but amiable monster." Happily the case is very different 

 at the present day. Nature is more esteemed in this generation. 

 Some grave author makes the remark that in the time of our 

 youth we ought to acquire and lay up as great a quantity as 

 possible of material for agreeable meditation in our old age. 

 What, then, can serve this purpose more durably than the study 

 of Nature ? 



Naturalists are generally noted for length of days, for con- 

 tinuing their pursuits with unabating zest till the very last, and 

 for a spirit of piety, which is naturally induced by looking 

 through Nature up to Nature's God. 



The day of my departure is not, nor is likely to be, accurately 

 determined on as yet ; for primarily it will depend upon the 

 weather, and secondarily on when I feel in the vein for getting 

 under weigh. 



Eemarks in allusion to the state of the weather form such a 

 considerable item in the small-talk of every Briton that foreigners, 

 blessed with a more equable climate, sometimes ridicule us for it. 

 In lona, however, the weather is a matter of such important 

 interest that it is not a mere conventional salutation to remark 

 upon it ; for the business of the day, and even the outgoing of 

 the post, is decided most arbitrarily by the capricious elements, 

 the wind, the weather, and the tide. 



Since the 7th of this month we have had a remarkable and 

 unusual frost, both for intenseness and duration, accompanied, for 

 the most part of the time, with blustering gales from the north 

 and north-east, which, in spite of the bright sun shining in a 



