54 
Is ext nioming, tlie 20tli of Juiio, saw us botli early afoot, and 
liaving viewed the dills from the tops the jirevious day, ^vo took 
boat and rowed round to the north side. The gale blew strong 
across the north-east bay, and we could not venture with safety 
round the point, and through the sound between Garbh-eilean and 
Eilean-Mlifiire. A long promontory juts out in this direction, and 
near its base, or junction Avith the main island, it is pierced by a 
remarkably fine sea-Avorn arched tunnel, fully forty yards in length, 
and about four times the breadth of a good sized roAv-boat. 
Guided by our good friend, the shepherd’s son, Ave decided upon 
shooting through this tunnel into the calmer Avater on the north 
side. Wind and tide being in our faA'our, Ave shot through Avith 
such A'elocity that Ave had scarcely time to glance upward at the 
arch forty feet above our heads, but only to attend to the guidance 
ot the boat. The arch acted as a perfect funnel, and the AAund 
Avhich rushed imjDetuously through, caught up the crests of the 
Avaves, which swelled grandly through it, and bore the Avater aAvay 
in clouds of spin-drift toAvards the sea to the northward. Once 
through; Ave lay in calmer Avater, gently rising and falling on the 
SA\ ell. Around us flew a feAv JvittiAvake Gulls, and on the ledges 
a small colony of Guillemots, and a fcAV Kazorbills had their eggs, 
but I searched CA’cry ledge in A^ain for a single specimen of the 
Bridled Guillemot. 
e then roAved along shore until aa’^c came under the basaltic 
cliffs and Puffin slopes, and Avhile Dr. Ileddle ascended again to 
tlie summit to take an observation for height Avith his aneroid, I 
collected a few Puffin’s eggs. These were often most difficult to 
get at, being laid far in, in crevices amongst the larger boulders. 
Our guide and I, hoAvever, succeeded in gathering about twenty 
eggs. We then rowed round under the cliff where the White-tailed 
Eagle has bred for so many years. I did not see the birds, but 
* See also Maccullocli’s description of this iiature-AA’orn arcli (op. cit. 
p. 320). Ilesaj's: “The velocity with Avhich Ave entered this dark and 
narrow passage, the shadoAvy uncertainty of forms half lost in its obscurity, 
tlie roar of tlie sea as it boiled and broke along like a mountain torrent, and 
the momentary uneasiness Avliich every such hazardous attempt never fails 
to produce, rendered tlie whole scene poetically terrific. As avc emerged 
from the darkness of this cavern, avc shot far away beyond the cliffs, whirled 
in tlic foaming eddies of the contending streams of tide.” 
