THE JOUKNAL OF THE 

 BEDFORD LITERARY AND SCIEXTIFIC INSTITUTE AND GENERAL LIBRARY 



LITERATURE 



SCIENCE 



ARCH>EOLOGY 



ART 



POSCES LIBRUM CUM LUMiNE.' 



Vol. I. No. 3. 



OCTOBER, 1891 



Price Twopence. 



a IHsit to Jl3ottf) Oist. 



By the Rey. R. B. Poole, D.D., President. 



/^S the Outer Hebrides are probably not Yery well known to, at any rate, all the 



readers of this Journal, it has struck me that I might make use of my holiday 

 experiences in answer to the editorial importunity to which I have of late been 

 subject. So without further preface I will at once plunge into my subject. 



I need not describe the route from Bedford to Oban, the starting place for most of 

 McBrayne's excellent steamers to the Islands. Here I am, at 6 a.m., on a fine but fresh 

 morning on board the s.s. " Flowerdale," all ready for a start, with the rods and other 

 baggage necessary for a fortnight's fishing excursion. My companion has just arrived by 

 the 4.45 a.m. train, and having bestowed our luggage, we proceed to examine our ship. 

 She is a capital sea-going vessel, high out of the water, with plenty of raised deck room, 

 an excellent saloon, and state rooms for night travelling. And here I may as well say 

 once for all that on all McBrayne's steamers the accommodation and the food are excep- 

 tionally good, and that any one who is not satisfied with them must be very difficult to 

 please. Passing up the Sound of Mull, at about 8.30 we reach the quiet little village of 

 Tobermory, with its bay sheltered by Calve Island, and woods reaching down to the 

 water's edge — one of the prettiest places in the Western Islands. Leaving Auliston and 

 Ardnamurchan Points and Loch Sunart on the right, we pass the Islands of Tiree and 

 Coll on the left, and making our way across what is practically the open Atlantic, we at 

 length reach Castlebay, in the Island of Barra, the most southern port of the Outer 

 Hebrides. The Bay is named from a castle which stands on a small promontory and is 



