The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

2IO The Highland Monthly.
discouraging tidings of his failure to find any mark to indi-
cate where we were. And now another difficulty presented
itself. The horse, getting impatient of standing still so
long, made several ineffectual attempts to go forward during
my driver's absence, but failing in this he commenced
to walk round in a circle, and by the time the driver had
joined me the horse had completed several revolutions.
The result was that we lost our bearings completely, and it
was as difficult to go back as to continue our course to
Carinish. AW around was one dense, impenetrable—at
least to the eye—mass of fog. However, something must
be done, and it was proposed to retrace our steps if
possible.
When we left Benbecula and till we crossed the Grams-
dale Ford the wind was on our left, but as we followed as
closely as we could the curved course indicated by the
stones, we gradually turned round till by the time we had
lost our way the wind was in our face. This latter fact we
had now forgotten, and, remembering only the direction in
which the wind blew when we entered the ford, we commenced
our backward journey keeping the wind nearly in
our face, but a little to the right. A minute's consideration
will enable any one who is acquainted with the ford, or
who has closely followed my description of it, to understand
that we were now heading nearly due west towards
the Atlantic. On we went, however, at a good trot, for the
horse was still fresh. The fog was very dense, and though
we both strained our eyes looking in every direction, we
could distinguish nothing. I asked the driver if he thought
we were proceeding in the direction of Benbecula, and he
replied he had no idea where we were, or where we were
going. From an occasional remark he made in Gaelic, I
inferred that he v.-as getting somewhat alarmed. So giving
him a few words of encouragement, though my own feel-
ings were by no means to be envied, I advised him to urge
the horse on, for on looking at my watch with the aid of a
lighted match, I saw it was later than I had expected. It