From the Hebrides to the Himalayas. A sketch of eighteen months' wanderings in western isles and eastern highlands

Front matter

FROM THE HEBRIDES TO THE HIMALAYAS. | j?hettb of Ortgbiecn ffloutta' (^timberings in @lestern |sles anb Eastern pigbhinbs. BY CONSTANCE F. GORDON CUMMING. Come o'er tlie green hills to the sunny sea. The boundless sea that washes many lands ; Where shells unknown to England, fair and free. Lie brightly scattered on the gleaming sands. There, 'mid the hush of slumb'rous ocean's roar, We'll sit and watch the silver tissued waves Creep languidly along the basking shore, Kissing thy gentle feet like eastern slaves." IN TWO VOLUMES.— VOL. I. LONDON : SAMPSON LOW, MAESTON, SEAELE, AND EIVINGTON, CROWN BUILDINGS, 188, FLEET STREET. 1876. [All Rights Rewrved.] DEDICATION. To the Sister, whose loving care preserved such rough " Notes of a Wanderer " as from time to time reached her from over the sea, I dedicated the same, when at her suggestion, I strung them together in their present form.

These pages have lain by for a little while, and in that interval she, at whose bidding they were penned, has passed away from earth. To her loving Memory I now Dedicate them, ere sending them forth to meet the eyes of less sympathizing critics. Cress well, North cmdeul., xd. PUBLISHERS' NOTE. Is the unavoidable absence of Miss Gordon Cumming from England during the progress of her work through the press, the Publishers have to acknowledge their indebtedness to Miss Isabella L. Bird, the accomplished authoress of The Hawaiian Archipelago, who at much personal inconveni ence has undertaken the revision of the proof sheets on behalf of her friend. Miss Bird wishes it to be known that, with the exception of certain omissions and verbal alterations, the text remains as originally written. PREFATORY NOTE.

As these volumes were compiled mainly from letters to near relatives, and from journals intended for their perusal, a few allusions to family memories occur which may not be of interest to the general reader. In the absence of the author, who sailed unexpectedly for Fiji as the first sheets went to press, the editor has thought it best to leave these allusions as they stand. PAGE CONTENTS.

Chapter II. The Inner Hebrides

Why the Mull of Canty-re is included — Islay, Scarba, and Jura — Legend of the Whirlpool of Corrievreken — Oban — The Serpent Mound — Serpent Legends — Dunstaffnage — Legend of the Coronation Stone— Iona — Legends of St. Colomba and his Druidic Predecessors — The 360 Crosses— 360 Sacred Stones of Mecca — Traces of Heathen Customs — Staffa — Mull — Ben Cruachan — Legends — Rum — Canna — Isle of Muck or Wild Boar — Traces of Animals now Extinct in Great Britain — Legend of the Scuir of Eigg — Reach Portree 29

Chapter III. The Quiraing

ISLE OF SKYE. Old Church Customs — Lack of Timber — Encroachments of the Sea — Dr. Johnson in Skye — Legend of Hugh's Castle — The Rock Wilderness of Quiraing — Duntulm Castle — Pl.ague of Midges — Great Sacramental Gathering on the Hill-side — Island Customs • 1C1

Chapter IV

A STRING OF QUAINT BEADS FROM MANY LANDS. .A. Concert Room — Duntulm Castle — Chapel of Fladda — Magic Stones and Crystals— Summer Yachting — Fairy-like Caves — Legends of Water Kelpies and Brownies — Of Divers Superstitions still prevalent, and of others now obsolete, common to Britain and India, such as Planet Wor- CONTENTS. X PAGE ship ; Ordeal by Finand Water ; Belief in Transmigration ; the Fiery Cross ; Unclean Meats ; Distinction between Wild Boar and Domestic- Swine ; the Sacred Goose ; Sacred Fish ; Sacrifice of Cocks in Illness ; Magic Circles ; of Spilling Salr ; of Sneezing— Geology of the Coast— The Storr Rock— A Dismal Walk Home— Sacrifices of Bulls to St. Malruba— Fishers Starting for the Season — Seals and Cormorants— Fish without Scales deemed Unclean— An Eel in a Ball-room— Drawing the Salmon Nets— Transformations of the Jelly Fish and Barnacle Goose — Belief in Existence of Mermaids 128

Chapter V. Modern

CHirS OF THE OLD BLOCKS. Traces of Olden Days— Modern Witchcraft ; Selling a Gale ; Bewitching Cows ; Evil Eye ; Numbering the People ; Leaving a House Unswept ; Making Clay Images to Harm a Neighbour ; Jealousy of Giving Fire on Certain Days, answering to the Old Fire Festivals — Kindling the Need Fire — Sacrifice of an Ox to Arrest Murrain — Sundry Customs supposed to bring Luck to the Cattle — Rowan-tree and Bed Thread — Of Reverence for Sunwise Turns common to many Nations — Churchyard and Funeral Superstitions — Carrying Fire Round Horses and Cattle — Traces of the Old Spring Festival, still called Beltane, or Baal's Fire — Wheel, Emblematic of the Sun, and Wheeling Dances — Bonfires — Exchanging Easter Eggs — Midsummer Fire Festival (Christianized as the Feast of St. John) — Bonfires and Dances — Leaping, and making Children Pass Through the Fire — Autumn Fire Festival (Hallowe'en)— How Christianized — Bonfires and Divination Games— Winter Festival — Yule — Adaptation of Christmas and other Festivals — Noel — Rolling Fire Wheel — Burning the Clavie, and kindred Pagan Customs — Traces of Grian, the Sun-god — Gruagach Stones whereon Libations were Poured — Hebrides Dedicated to Goddess Brighit — Institution of Christian Nuns of St. Bridgit to Tend the Old Sacred Fire ! — General Process of Assimilation — Offerings of Horses — Pagan Customs at Christian Baptisms — Worship of Neithe, Goddess of Water — Well Worship — Ineffectual Efforts to Check Worship of Trees, Fountains, and Stones— But the King's Touch as a Cure for Scrofula Sanctioned — Traces of Moon AVorship — Odd Customs of Betrothal— Thumb-licking — An Owl's Question 1$2

Chapter VI

A ROYAL FUGITIVE. Sketch of Prince Charlie's Adventures while hiding in the Hebrides . . . CONTENTS. XI i

Chapter VII. The Outer Hebrides

PAGE St. Kilda— Home of the Sea-bird Inhabitants— High Character — Toilsome Lives — Traces of Old Churches, and Assimilated Paganism — Edicts Sanctioning this — Ritual Combs— Martin's Visit to St. Kilda — Origin of Certain Gaelic Names — Church Ceremonies under Difficulties — Sail to Harris — Drive to Fincastle — Temple of Callernish in Lewis — Kindred Rude Stone Monuments Extending in Unbroken Succession to Hindustan — Temples or Tombs— Modern Dolmens — Passing Through the Regenerating Cow, or Perforated Stone, or Rock Crevice — Herring Fishery — Sail to North Uist— Cattle Market at Loch Maddy— Story of the Red Dye — The Machars— An Improbable Shell Midden— Isle of Vallay — Fish Market — Tides and Fords— Benbecula — Treasures Brought by the Gulf Stream — " God's Blessings " — Timber Supply — South Uist— Barra — South Bernera — Mingalay — Sail to Dunvegan — Piper's College — Legends of Macleod and Macdonald— Story of Lady Grange 288

Chapter VIII. From Skye To Calcutta

At Anchor in Loch Staffin— Sail to Portree — A Calm — Whistling for the Wind — Literal Pouring of Oil on the Waters— A Fortnight Alone in the Rock Wilderness — Sligachan Inn — The Cuchullins — Divers Tourists — Loch Corruisk — A Good Day's Deer Stalking — Old Boar Hunt — " Blocs Perches " — Giant Fossils on Isle of Eigg— Legends of a Clan Fight, and the Grave of a Viking's Daughter — Old Churchyards of Snizort, Nigg, &c. — Of Funeral Feasts — The Skye Railway Foreseen by Local Seers— Drive vid Balmacarra and Loch Alsh to Shiel House Inn — Glen Quoich— A Bold Outlaw — Fort Augustus —Castle Urquhart — Eastward-ho ! . . . LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. PACK Old Kirkyard of Kil-Colm-Kill. The Mull of Cantyre . To face 19 Kirkyard of Kilkf.van 27 Serpent-Shaped Mound near Oban To sacs 37 The Cuchullins .

To face 100 The Lodge, Uig 102 The Quiraing To face 116 Duntulm Castle To face 129 Schloch Maddie Cave, Skye To face 136 The Kilt Rock 158 Dunvegan Castle To face 333 The Storr 345 Loch Corruisk, Skye . . m To face 354 Castle of Eilean Ddnan 371 Glen Quoich 373 Fort Augustus and the Glengarry Hills ....... To face 371 Castle Ukquiiakt To face to the HIMALAYAS — ► —

Chapter I. The Mull Of

C A N T Y K E. "Both in character and in intellect the Bengalee is the Oriental Celt in almost everything good or bad, except the Celt's bravery." — Allardyce. A PLEASURE trip to India seems to be one of the possibilities, still so novel as hardly to have taken a definite place in the British mind, which invariably conjures up dreary visions of burning plains, with everything that can tend to make life hateful. Long summer months, during which the fair fresh Western faces become paler, and more pale, as they lie gasping, under the monotonous swing of the punkah, dreading beat apoplexy, should the weary " punkah-wallah " fall asleep (as he is only too likely to do), and living from dawn to sunset in such darkness as precludes the possibility of almost any occupation, even reading, while it greatly favours the inroads of every horrible variety of creeping animal life.

This being the general impression of Indian life, and certainly my own till a very short time ago, it is pleasant for once to glance at it through a rosier medium, and see how those who have times and seasons at their own disposal, may now visit this wonderful land, and store their minds with its grand pictures, without being subject to any of its miseries. For my own part, I can tell of a year of unmitigated enjoyment, during VOL. I. B which my " panorama of travel " has carried me over twelve thousand miles, full of infinite variety, and with no greater trouble or inconvenience than often attends the simplest journey across country (and such monotonous country !) in Old England ; and though an old proverb tells us that " east or west, hame is best," it is a very good thing to arrive at that conclusion for oneself rather than accept an unproven dictum.

I have re turned from India, having seen more of its marvels than almost any old Indian of twenty years' service, and yet have never felt one day of real heat, and have rarely seen a punkah in action. Nor have I made acquaintance with any species of venomous creature in its wild state except three harmless snakes, much like those familiar to us on English moors. Of course, everyone who lands at Calcutta receives the homage always paid by the mosquito to the new comer ; but I never saw them anywhere else, nor found occasion to use those large bottles of " Essential Oil of Lavender " which I had proved to be the only safeguard from the plague of midges, which were the continual torture of my daily life in Skye. My experience of Indian climate, by dint of judicious locomo tion, has been to prolong a balmy continuous summer, from one Lecember till the next ; and to this a second and a third might well be added, always wandering over new ground.

Perhaps these wanderings gained an additional charm from the aimless, easy-going way in which I found myself, almost unconsciously, drifting from the Western Isles to the Eastern Hills. The only mistake was, drifting homeward in like manner ; and only the rude shock of finding myself once more in the bitter snows of an English spring, awakened me all too quickly from this fascinating dream, to return to the prosaic commonplaces of ordinary life. Nevertheless, the dream has left the mind stored with multitudinous odds and ends, of picturesque scenes and thoughts, but all so jumbled and ravelled, that, like the tangled skeins in the old nursery story, it would need the touch of a fairy godmother to bring order out of such dire confusion. That good fairy will, I fear, not come to my aid, so I must unravel the threads as best I can.

Should any prove inter minably long-drawn yarns, you must recollect they were partly spun by jolly tars, who rarely know when to stop. For the most part they can be but a heap of short, broken threads, as diverse in colour as in quality, and so I fully expect that you will dismiss my journal, with a criticism akin to that once passed on au odd volume of Johnson's " Dictionary," by a hard headed Scot, who for a whole week had been laid up with a broken ankle and with no other light reading. " Weel," he said ; " there 's no doubt the facts may be real interesting ; but as a whole, it's vara unconnected ! " Do you remember the sunny morning when we parted from you, under the blossoming old cherry-tree ? little thinking then of all that would befall us, before you welcomed us home again. Our only plan was to spend some quiet weeks in the most out of-the-world place we could find; one where my pencil might keep me busy, while my brother could rejoice in perfect idleness after a course of hard reading; and what spot more suitable than the Land's End of Scotland, the dear bluff old Mull of Cantyre, which had already given us so many pleasant days ?

So we started, but without reference to our neighbours, and soon found to our cost that they were keeping holy-day, or holiday, as the case might be. It was a Sacramental Fast— very solemn to one section of the community, but a very " fast " day to the majority. Thus it came to pass that every station was crowded, and the line blocked with extra trains, and bours before we reached Greenock, our steamer had quietly sailed down the Clyde. So far as we were concerned, we had good reason afterwards (and indeed at the time) to rejoice in the delay, as it enabled us to test for the last time what, alas ! we may never claim again, the unfailing hospitality of one of our truest and oldest friends, — whose most unexpected death, one short month later, added one more great blank to those which all too quickly thin that precious list.1 The third morning found us under weigh, and by midday we were watching the changing lights on the Isle of Arran, or Ar-rinn — ' the land of sharp pinnacles ' most rightly named.

Dark shadows were drifting over the granite peaks of Goatsell, which seemed to tower so high above the mist, though their actual height is only 2,875 feet. I. little thought, while gazing wonderingly on the grim peaks of Ben Ghoil, the " mountain of the wind," that I should soon be wandering among mountain ridges as shapely in form, and more than ten times their height. 1 Archibald Campbell, Esq., of Blythswood. B Here and there were little clusters of tiny brown huts, nestling in the shadow of the great hills, and human beings with collie dogs and flocks of sheep moved to and fro, like atoms scarcely visible. Nevertheless, the sight of these reminded us of Pennant's quaint description of his visit to this island in the last century, wheu he speaks of the terrible prevalence of pleurisy, and describes its cure by bleeding — a process to which every inhabitant was subjected twice a year, in spring and autumn; a ceremony which was observed with the utmost regularity.

He tells how " the Duke of Hamilton keeps a surgeon in his pay, who at those seasons makes a tour of the island. On his arrival at any farm, the people bare their arms, when they are bled into a hole made in the ground ! " I think our modern Highlanders would object to such treatment almost as much as to the wages for which their grandfathers worked. For, according to the same authority, the farm men considered themselves well paid by thirty shillings a year, together with house, meal, and shoes ; while the dairy-maids received thirteen shillings and fourpence, and common drudges only six and eight-pence. As we passed gloomy Loch Eanza, with its fine dark back ground to the old ruined castle, once a royal hunting-seat, our attention was called to the boats of the oysterdredgers; and we would fain have halted for a night to find out whether the oysters of Loch ltanza have the same ear for music as their brethren in the Firth of Fortb, who require a continuous dredg ing-song to lull them to their doom, so that the wily fishers must perforce keep up an incessant monotonous chaunt, in which all their conversation must be carried on.

Various collectors of old ballads have from time to time gone out for a night with the dredgers, hoping to add new songs to their store, but all agree in saying that the same words never occur twice unchanged ; and so they only gain the bitter cold of a night in an open boat in one of the months " with an Pi," which you perceive excludes all the bonnie summer nights. One allusion to this graceful old custom in fisher-life is found in a charming ballad which begins : — " The herring loves the merry moonlight, The mackerel loves the wind, But the oyster loves the dredging song, For he comes of a gentle kind." We passed various small vitrified forts, on prominent head lands, said to have been purposely burnt, so that by the action of fire, a rock-like solidity might be produced. These old ruins generally have the prefix "Dun" = a fort, as Dunaverty, which is at the furthest point of the peninsula.

Among the man}- theories which have been propounded concerning the traces of a bygone age, none is, to me, so attractive as that which assumes them to have originally been fire-temples, the altars of Bel, or Bael, the Celtic Baal, or Sun god. These vitrified circular masses are generally placed on some commanding height, often too near together to have been used as beacon lights. The stones are fused into glassy masses, the inside more perfectly vitrified than the outside, as would naturally be the case, if these raging fiery furnaces were the altars where fire burnt day and night, and where hundreds of animals and human sacrifices were offered at the great Baal festivals. It is said that long after Christianity was introduced in Britain, the fire-worship was continued ; and even human sacrifices were immolated on Bel's devouring altars, the land long remaining in a strange twilight state, halting between two opinions — the grossness of heathen darkness, mitigated indeed by Christianity, but still very far from the light of perfect day ; and the people in general resembling the " mixed multitude " which followed the Israelites in their Exodus, with some leaning to the new faith, but a stronghold on the old idolatries.

The golden sunset fell on Ailsa Craig, and the bold headland of Davaar, as we entered the fine land-locked harbour of Camp beltown, wherein lay many fishing-boats of all sizes, with rich brown sails. Again we bethought us of old Pennant, and his account of this crowded harbour, where as many as two hundred and sixty " busses " might be seen at once. I fear that the Cockney mind, picturing a 'bus of the present day, would be somewhat disappointed to find so very dull a little town. Campbeltown is chiefly remarkable for the amazing fact that its annual tax for whisky-duty amounts to £600,000 ; of which £350,000 is paid to the collector of Inland Eevenue at Campbeltown, and the remainder in Glasgow and elsewhere. This is pretty well for " fire-water." The whisky of Camp beltown and Islay bears a very high character, and the distillers give so high a price for good barley that there is no longer any inducement for the Highlanders to deal with the smugglers ; who in very recent times had stills for niountain-dew all over this part of the country, so extensive a seaboard affording good scope for their trade.

The Hebrideans crossed from the Isles to Rhu nahourine (the Heron's Point), thence inarching across the hills to Skipness in bands of thirty or forty armed men, whose rough shelties were laden with heavy creeks containing the moonlight produce, winch was then sent to Glasgow. The " stream in the moonlight which kings dinna ken " has not wholly ceased to flow, and I have heard of sundry mysterious presents of kegs of " the crathur," very superior in quality to any that is to be procured from the large stills. But the days are gone by when the wild Skipness men thought it all fair play to fight their battles with a revenue cutter; and, having overpowered her crew, to turn them all adrift again without oars or tackle, to be tossed at the mercy of the waves ! Some of the old stills are yet pointed out, or rather the caves and deep hollows where the smugglers used to work.

Deep pits such as those where we have so often lingered, on hot summer days, in the dark fir woods above Dufftown (that paradise of wild flowers), where, amid richest purple heather, you note in one place a circle of white-stemmed birches, in another a fringe of golden broom and tangled wild roses, clustering round a deep, circular cup, where once the mountain dew was distilled, but where now the greenest and richest ferns nestle in the cool shade, while wood-doves murmur on every side. A pleasant resting-place, in truth. To such as prize the rarest flora of our isle, that wood has one special interest, as being one of the very few places in Britain where the dainty little Linnœa Borealis has, from time immemorial, uplifted her delicate hair-like stem and tiny pink bell from the low heather beneath which her long sprays of leaflets creep along the ground, only revealing her presence in the noonday, by the faintest fragrance, and reserving for the moonbeams her most honied breath.

She is a coy beauty, not to be lured from her chosen home. Only on one small patch of moorland are those fairy blossoms to be found ; a safe retreat, happily known to but few, too covetous admirers. To return to Campbeltown, or as it was anciently called, Dal ruadhein. Remote as it now seems to us, there was a time when it was the centre of Scottish life, and for upwards of three cen turies it was, in fact, the capital of Scotland. This continued till the reign of Kenneth IL, King of the Scots, who, having finally subdued the Picts, and merged both races in one kingdom, selected Forteviot, in Perthshire, as a more suitable capital. These Dalriads seem to have come over from Ireland about the year 502 a.d., and to have founded that kingdom known in Scottish history as Alba ; their power and numbers must have increased rapidly, for not long afterwards we hear how the King of Alba invaded Ireland and fought the great battle of Moyra, famous in old song.

In fact, these Scots-Dalriads held their place as a strong Celtic race, till the Norsemen overran the land, and moulded existing institutions to suit their own convenience. In later days James IV. here held a Parliament, as.." Parliament Close " still attests. There were, however, certain turbulent chiefs who would by no means render obedience to his laws ; more especially one Macdonald, whose castle of Cean Loch stood on the very spot now occupied by the large Castle-hill Church. In order to keep this man in check, James V. came here in person, and repaired the old fort of Kil-Kerran, leaving in it such a garrison as might overawe all rebellious subjects. But before the King had got dear of the harbour, Macdonald sallied out of his castle, took possession of the fortalice, and, in the sight of the King, hanged the new governor from the walls.

This old castle of Kil-Kerran stood about a mile from Campbeltown. A very large old burial-ground, close by, still marks the spot where St. Kieran, the Apostle of Cantyre, first taught the people. St. Kieran was baptized by St. Patrick, and soon afterwards seems to have found his way to these shores, where, according to one account, he died fifteen years before St. Columba landed in Cantyre, though they are generally said to have come together. The cave in which he lived, the Cove a Khiaran, lies among the rocks so close to the sea, that you cannot enter it at high water. At all times it is a difficult, slippery scramble. Once there, you find a fine cave, with a dripping well, filling a rock basin with clear sparkling water, whence the Saint drank. And beside it, on a great stone, is a rudely sculptured cross, where, in the solitude of this grand wild temple, guarded from all human intruders by that barrier of mighty waters, he might worship his God undisturbed.

Of his church, once the most important in Cantyre, little, if any, trace now remains ; but two shafts of broken crosses, carved with galleys, figures and arabesques, are among the very ancient stones in the old kirkyard. While speaking of saintly names associated with this town, I cannot forbear to remind you of one, who has so recently passed away from our midst, that the mention of his birthplace cannot fail to recall to multitudes (and assuredly to every Scotchman, of whatever denomination) the name of the great, and good, and genial Norman Macleod — a teacher as influential and beloved, and one as unsparing of his work, as the mightiest of those Celtic Fathers ; one who needs no canonization at the hands of earthly Councils to rivet his hold on the affections and his influence on the life of multitudes, even of those who were never privileged to hear his voice, but who, nevertheless, were followed to the uttermost ends of the earth by his good and loving words — so tender, and yet so strong and invigorating — learning from him year by year something of deeper reverence for things human and divine, and perchance catching from his large-hearted liberality something of a broader and more glow ing charity, such as would fain enfold the whole great world in its own boundless love.

Truly, were it only for having given birth to one such son as he, Cantyre may henceforth claim to be not least among the provinces of Scotland. In the market place of Campbeltown there stands a very fine cross of hard blue whinstone, covered with well-carved figures, foliage and runic knots, and bearing an inscription, but whether this is Saxon or Lombardic is still disputed. It is supposed to have been brought over from Iona, where at one time there stood 360 stone crosses, in the cemetery. These the Synod of Argyle, in A.D. 1560, pro nounced to be " monuments of idolatrie," and commanded that they should be thrown into the sea. Some, however, were rescued, and taken to old churchyards and market-places in the neighbouring islands, or on the mainland. They are all very similar, being monoliths, generally of whinstone, and covered with elaborate designs.

About two miles from Campbeltown lies the old kirkyard of Kilcousland, one of many which, to me, give an especial charm to these green shores ; lying, as they do, almost within reach of the wild spray, which, dashing heavenward, falls in lightest showers over the rank grass and golden iris, and mossy stones beneath which sleep so many forgotten generations. Kilcousland has no stones of especial interest, but many are quaint and old, and though the majority only show crowns and shields and grotesque death's-heads-and-crossbones, and fat-faced cherubs with lumps of moss for their eyes, or else such growth of golden lichen as Old Mortality would have loved to scrape away, there are some devices which tell the daily work of the sleeper forcibly enough. Thus, a ploughman has quite a graceful grouping of reins and harness ; a carpenter keeps his hammer and saw and sundry other tools; while poor Snip, the tailor, carries his shears and his goose to the end of time.

Why is it that this most useful of honourable trades should be connected in our minds with so many uncomplimentary sayings ? The German proverb says that " If it rains while the sun shines, a tailor has gone to heaven ! "—apparently an exceptional occurrence. Then we are told that the word '* snob " is a contraction of the tailor's motto " Sic Nobilitas." From our cradle we are taught that, much as he may impress our childish mind, he is nevertheless only the ninth part of a man ; and here we find him carrying a goose to the grave. On the broken shaft of an old cross, a carved galley tells of some forgotten Island chief, while a neighbouring stone bears a knight's two-handed sword, surrounded with runic knotting The next tomb bears only a heavy dagger on a shield, no name to mark who sleeps beneath.

The Saint to whom this spot was dedicated is said to have been a certain St. Constantine, a Scotch king slain by the Danes in 881. I sat for many hours in this calm " God's acre," in the shade of the ruined church, watching the ever-changing colours of the quiet sea, lipping up to the foot of the green hill on which I rested; constant changes from blue to green, and purple and silvery greys, all blended by the reflection of every tint of sky and cloud according as the angle of the broken wavelet either mirrors these, or lets us see beneath its surface, into its own depths ; givinous hints of the wonderful world below the waters. There were broken reflections, too, from the hills of Arran, and from Ailsa Craig, and now and then a white sail would round the lighthouse and enter the quiet haven.