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Mr. Macgillivray’s Account of the Outer Hebrides. 249 
Draba verna, Ranunculus Ficaria, and Bellis perennis, unfold their 
blossoms. It is not until the end of May, however, that in the pas- 
ture-grounds the green livery of summer has fairly superseded the 
grey and brown tints of the withered herbage of winter. From the 
beginning of July to the end of August is the season of summer. 
October terminates the autumnal season. During the spring east- 
erly winds prevail, at first interrupted by blasts and gales from 
other quarters, accompanied by rain or sleet, but ultimately be- 
coming more steady, and accompanied with a comparative dryness 
of the atmosphere, occasioning the drifting of the sands to a great 
extent. Summer is sometimes fine, but as frequently wet and bois- 
terous, with southerly and westerly winds. Frequently the wet 
weather continues with intervals until September, from which pe- 
riod to the middle of October there is generally a continuance of 
dry weather. After this westerly gales commence, becoming more 
boisterous as the season advances. It is perhaps singular, that 
while, in general, little thunder is heard in summer, these. winter 
gales should frequently be accompanied by it. Dreadful tempests 
sometimes happen through the winter, which often unroof the huts 
of the natives, destroy their boats, and cover the shores with im- 
mense heaps of sea-weeds, shells, and drift timber. 7 
After a continued gale of westerly wind, the Atlantic rolls in its 
enormous billows upon the western coasts, dashing them with in- 
conceivable fury upon the headlands, and scouring the sounds and 
creeks, which, from the number of shoals and sunk rocks in them, 
often exhibit the magnificent spectacle of terrific ranges of breakers 
extending for miles. Let any one who wishes to have some con- 
ception of the sublime, station himself upon a headland of the west 
coast of Harris, during the violence of a winter tempest, and he 
will obtain it. The blast howls among the grim and desolate rocks 
around him. Black clouds are seen advancing from the west in 
fearful masses, pouring forth torrents of rain and hail. A sudden 
fiash illuminates the gloom, and is followed by the deafening roar 
of the thunder, which gradually becomes fainter, until the roar of 
the waves upon the shore prevails over it. Meantime, far as the 
eye can reach, the ocean boils and heaves, presenting one wide-ex- 
tended field of foam, the spray from the summits of the billows 
sweeping along its surface like drifted snow. No sign of life is to 
be seen, save when a gull, labouring hard to bear itself up against 
the blast, hovers over head, or shoots athwart the gloom like a me- 
teor. Long ranges of giant waves rush in succession towards the 
shores. The thunder of the shock echoes among the crevices and 
caves ; the spray mounts along the face of the cliffs to an astonish- 
ing height ; the rocks shake to their summit ; and the baftled wave 
rolls back to meet its advancing successor. If one at this season 
ventures by some slippery path to peep into the haunts of the cor- 
morant and rock pigeon, he finds them sitting huddled together in 
melancholy silence. For whole days and nights they are sometimes 
doomed to feel the gnawings of hunger, unable to ae way against 
VOL. I. I 
