172 
EXTRACTS FROM HIS WORKS [ch. m 
and the mere field-naturalist, however delighted 
with it, cannot enjoy that true pleasure which 
results from a knowledge of the adaptation of 
means to ends, by which all these species have 
their peculiar spheres of action determined. 
British Birds, vol. i., pp. 301, 302. 
7__On Clisheim in a Snow-Storm. 
Having in October 1817, as I find by one of 
my note-books, left Borve in Harris, in company 
with the Reverend Mr Alexander Macleod, minister 
of the Forest district, I crossed the sand ford and 
hills of Luskentir to the little Bay of Kindibig, 
where we lodged with a farmer, who next day 
ferried us over Loch Tarbert to a place called 
Urga. We remained there for a night, and then 
continued our journey, proceeding up a long, 
craggy, and bleak valley, in which is a very dark- 
coloured lake, famous for a goblin-beast which is 
seen upon it in summer in the form of a black mass 
having three humps. The wind was exceedingly 
keen, the hail came in great showers, and the 
summits of the mountains were covered with snow. 
I left the parson a little above Marig, a creek 
on Loch Seaforth, in which was his dreary-looking 
habitation, and having resolved to ascend the 
highest hill, in order to witness a Hebridian snow¬ 
storm in all its glory, I proceeded towards Chsheim, 
