44 THE FEELING OF QUIET ” 157 
the eastern parts of Scotland would probably find 
no pleasure in these half-desert places, where not a 
whin-bush is to be seen, nor a rook or a rabbit to 
be met with. But to me the wild shores of the 
remote Hebrides have a peculiar charm. There, 
in the north, extends the crowded range of the 
Harris mountains, partially shrouded in vapours; 
on the other side are seen the hills of South Uist, 
among which Hecla stands pre-eminent; behind 
you are broken crags, patches of heath, pools of 
brown water, edged with sedges and horsetails, 
and covered with water-lilies; on either hand are 
long ranges of alternating cliffs and sands ; and 
before you is spread out the great ocean, glowing 
with the reflected blaze of the setting sun. Strings 
of gannets are passing westward in the direction of 
St Kilda, forty miles distant, where they will 
arrive in less than half an hour; the sand fords 
resound with the creaking cries of the terns, which 
are seen hovering over a shoal of fry; the shrill 
cries of the oyster-catcher, and the loud screams 
of the curlew come from the distant corran ; the 
thickets of the yellow iris around give out the 
singular notes of the corn-crake; and at intervals 
come the swellings of the ocean-murmur wafted by 
the gentle breezes from the rocky shore of the 
bleak headlands, where the grey eagle has perched 
his huge erie. 
44 The cattle are in the fold, the labourer at his 
evening meal, dimness is creeping westward over 
the sky, all Nature is in harmony with itself; there 
are no jarrings or discords; a holy calm steals over 
the mind, there is peace with the world, or rather 
the world is forgot and forgiven; injuries received 
rankle not in the breast; no envy is felt; the 
presence of the Eternal is around, it encloses you; 
you cannot, if you would, escape from it; and 
there when the broad disk of the great luminary 
