254 



ON THE TRAVELLED STONE 



miliar to those which have covered whole countries 

 with boulders, the nature of which bespeaks their 

 having belonged to rocks nowhere existing in situ 

 in their entire and native state, in the vicinity 

 of their present place of repose. The stranger ea- 

 sily recognises the spot from which it was last re- 

 moved, (just within flood-mark), it being marked by 

 a wooden-post, which the two contiguous proprietors 

 were under the necessity of erecting, in order to sup- 

 ply the place of the stone, and to serve as an object 

 for defining the line of march. At the fishing vil- 

 lage of Artirloss, situated on a point above a mile to 

 the westward of the stone, I learned several parti- 

 culars regarding its extraordinary migration ; but it 

 was recommended to me to call on the miller of the 

 Sea-mill of Petty for a fuller detail of the facts, who, 

 living much nearer the stone, and having had it con- 

 stantly in his view for a long series of years, not 

 only recollected every circumstance about it, but was 

 the first person who, on the ensuing morning, noti- 

 ced that it had been removed during the night. 



I lost no time, therefore, in visiting this old man, 

 whose name is Alexander Macgillivray ; and I was 

 lucky enough to find him at home. His informa- 

 tion on the subject, and his replies to my interro- 

 gatories, were in every respect perfectly distinct and 

 satisfactory. He informed me, that this remarkable 

 circumstance took place on the night between Fri- 

 day the 19th and Saturday the 20th February, of 

 the year 1799. There had been a long continued 



