Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

LEWIS.
225
LEWIS. LOCH BERNEIIA. STONE CIRCLES. DRUIDS.
The next day found us^in Loch^Bernera in Lewis.
But it found us in a fog, and in a fog so thick, that, for
two days, we could not see the bowsprit end. Yet there
are advantages to be extracted, even out of a fog, by him
who has studied that chemistry which separates the scat-
tered atoms of good that are concealed under the moun-
tains of human evil ; and it is mainly owing to the dark-
ness of this one, that you are indebted for so luminous an
account of St. Kilda. Half a dozen bright days of
occupation would have erased the half of these records
of the brain : and thus it is that we learn, like the ducks,
to rejoice even in the rains that imprison us to our narrow
cabins on board, and to our smoky cabins on shore.
This inland sea is crowded with islands, among whicb^
the great Bernera is six miles long; but many of them
are very small. While the shores are deeply indented
by bays and promontories, the water is so beset with
these islands, that it requires no small effort of attention
and care to navigate it. With plenty of time to spare,
this navigation is very entertaining ; the pleasure may
not unaptly be compared to that of discovering aenigmas
from the exertion of ingenuity which it requires. But
there is nothing picturesque, as the cliffs are without
beauty and there is an utter want of wood. From the
violent contrasts of red, white, and black, the rocks look
like marbled paper; as if Nature had here sported in
painting her own works, for the entertainment of some
haberdasher in taste : an effect produced by the contor-
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