The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

THE
Caught in a Ford. 205
CAUGHT IN A FORD.
" Oh ! Mai'y, go and call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home,
And call the cattle home
Across the Sands of Dee !
The western wind was wild and dark with foam,
And all alone went she.
The creeping tide came up along the sand,
And o'er and o'er the sand,
And round and round the sand
As far as eye could see ;
The blinding mist came up and hid the land,
And never home came she."
expressive and pathetic lines quoted above were
suggested to me by an experience I had last year
in the ford between the Islands of Benbecul^ and North
Uist. It was in April, and I was driving from South Uist
to Lochmaddy. It was my intention to be at the latter
place on a Friday to catch the mail boat that left about
noon the same day for Skye. Important business
demanded my presence in Portree on Friday evening, and
in order to be in Lochmaddy in time for the mail boat, it
was necessary that I should drive through the ford at low
water on Thursday night. This I determined to do. I left
Creagorry Hotel about midnight with a pair of horses, and
made for the ford, which was about three miles distant.
My driver was a powerful young man of many years'
experience in the ford, and in him I had implicit confidence.
The night was clear and starry with a stiff breeze of
westerly wind, but there was no moon. When about halfway
between the hotel and the ford, one of the horses,
which was rather restive, took fright at some dark object
by the roadside just as we got to the summit of a slight
ascent, and in spite of the combined efforts of the driver
and myself to check them, the infuriated animals rushed
down the hill at a terrific rate for about a quarter of a mile.