The Highland monthly - National Library of Scotland

Caught in a Ford.
was half-past two o'clock, and I knew that even then the
Gramsdale Ford was too deep. To recross it was, how-
ever, our only chance. We continued at a brisk rate for
about ten minutes longer, anxiously peering through the
fog in every direction in the hope of seeing land, but without
success. Another circumstance now increased my
uneasiness, and that was the marked disinclination which
the horse shewed towards the direction he was compelled
to take, for he made several ineffectual attempts to turn to
the left. I was on the point of drawing the driver's atten-
tion to this when splash ! the horse plunged into water.
At the same time I saw a large black mass of water, with
its white crest easily visible through the fog, rushing
towards us ; and the driver exclaiming in Gaelic—
" A
Thighearna ! se tha so an cuan " (My God !
this is the
ocean), turned the horse right round at the same moment
that the wave broke over us in a cloud of spray. The
driver now lost his presence of mind completely, and for
the first time I myself fully realised the extreme gravity of
our position. Here we were perhaps miles from a place of
safety with the flowing tide rushing in with great velocity.
Our only hope of safety lay in immediate action, but what was
to be done ! We
had no idea where we were nor in what
direction we were now to go. A bright thought struck me^
and one that we should have acted on before now. I asked
the driver if the horse had often been through the ford, and
if he were likely to find his way home if left to himself
The reply to both questions was in the affirmative, and the
horse, prompted by a few lashes of the whip, bounded forward
at a smart gallop. But alas ! our hope of safety,
raised for a moment by our confidence in the instinctive
knowledge of the horse, was but short-lived ; for I remem-
bered that even should the animal endeavour to return to
Benbecula, the Gramsdale Ford was far too deep, for the
splash of the horse's feet told us that the tide was rapidly
rising even on the higher sands, and that it would in a short
time cover the whole expanse. Our only chance was to