NEAR CASTLE-STUART. 255 



and severe frost ; and the greater part of the little 

 bay had been for some time covered with ice, which 

 was probably formed there the more readily, owing 

 to the quantity of fresh water from the stream run- 

 ning near to Castle-Stuart, emptying itself into 

 this inlet of the sea in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood. The stone was by this means fast secured, by 

 the ledge I have already described, being bound 

 round by a vast cake of ice, of many yards in ex- 

 tent, which, being frozen hard under the projection 

 (A A), must have produced an admirable mechani- 

 cal means for its elevation, for which purpose it 

 afforded an extensive raft. The miller told us he 

 had measured some of this ice, and found it no less 

 than 18 inches thick. The stone was thus sur- 

 rounded, when the sea left it at its ebb, and the 

 whole of the circumjacent sand was left covered by 

 this extensive, solid, and unbroken glacier. It is 

 evident, that as the sea began again to flow, this 

 would be naturally enough buoyed up in some de- 

 gree by the returning water insinuating itself un- 

 derneath it. On the night between the 19th and 

 20th of February, already noticed, the tide, which 

 happened to be remarkably high, was full about 

 12 o'clock. About this hour, the wind began to 

 blow a hurricane, which the miller described as ha- 

 ving been perfectly unparalleled in the memory of 

 the oldest men living, accompanied at the same 

 time by a furiously drifting snow. The old man 

 stated, that this tremendous storm blew directly 



