OBITUARY NOTICES. 
417 
places as thick as the hand. A burial-ground in the sand, with a square 
tomb, no roof, no inscriptions. 
“ 2nd day (Monday) along the coast towards Vallay. Did not call on 
Mac R., ascended the highest hill in the west of the Island, a long slant of 
peat 3 or 4 feet thick in parts on the summit. A very extensive wild view 
West, Hesker, St. Kilda. North-West, most of Harris and Lewis. East, 
Skye and the Mainland ; ragged gorges and clefts in the Cuchullins glistening 
with snow. South, Benbecula and South West, below me, innumerable Lochs. 
Went to one supposed to be Scadawav. West end, saw two geese with 
5 young : 2 geese with 2 young : 4 other geese flew into the Loch. Lesser 
and greater Black-backed Gulls. In a small piece of water in a mossy 
swamp saw two Red-throated Divers, which after repeated diving took flight 
— no eggs — Found nest of the bird supposed to be the Purple Sand Piper, — 
heard its peculiar note no eggs in it. Saw Richardson’s Squa, think the}' 
had not laid. Loch M round the side going to Loch Maddy, saw one 
Red-throat — Hunted one side of the Loch — no success.” 
In the following extract from a letter to liis sister, dated 
Tighary Inn, 6 mo., 17, 48, he again aptly describes the above scene, 
almost in the words of llarvie-llrown and Buckley,* who speak 
of the extraordinary mixture of land and water presented to the 
eye in North Uist. 
“ Embracing a most extensive area. A long stretch of mainland the 
Isle of Skye, Lewes, South Uist St. Kilda. Patches of snow on the 
Cuchullins [in Skye] shone with a dazzling whiteness and below the hill 
the country seemed one immense sludgy pool dotted with Islands. You 
would think it impossible for any road to thread its way amongst them.” 
After visiting Tighary, Loch Nan-Ian, Loch Scatavagh, and 
other places, he turned northwards again to Obbe, Tarbert, 
Balallan, Loch Erisort, and Stornoway. During this excursion he 
evidently lived upon the simplest fare, consisting mainly of milk, 
eggs, oat cake, cheese, etc. The largest single entry in his pocket 
book is £1 for birds’ eggs. On one occasion he swam to a small 
island in one of the Lochs to obtain specimens of some gulls’ eggs, 
and having no other appliance convenient for their transport, he 
carried them back in one of his boots, which he held between his 
teeth as he swam. On another occasion his beaver hat was used 
in like manner for the same purpose. 
From Stornoway he took the steamer to Loch Alsh, from which 
place he tramped to Clunie and Tomdown, thence along Loch 
Garry to Invergarry, from which place he took the steamer to 
liana vie. 
* ‘ Vertebrate Fauna of the Outer Hebrides,’ 1888, p. lxi. and plate. 
