Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

LKWIS. 27l
LEWIS. PIGMIES. DANES. STORNOWAY.
SCALPA.
We weighed our anchor at three in the morning; and
if we had not weighed it at three, we might have re-
mained in Loch Bernera another week. Half of our
success at sea depends on the watchful activity which
catches at every, the smallest, advantage. As if it was
not the same on land: in war as in travelling, in physic
as in love, in law as in boxing, in diplomacy, in swindling,
in trade, in argument, in what not. Thus we gained the
tide; thus we gained the only wind that was to be found,
and which, if we had not taken it when it was going,
would have been lost. But the wind was light, though
fair: every inch of cloth, therefore, which the ship could
carry was spread. There was the square sail, and the
gaff top sail, and a topsail studding sail, and the square
sail was boomed out to starboard, and the tack of the
mainsail was hauled close down, and a water sail was
rigged out on the boom. If a man would make his way
on shore, if he would get the start of time, if he would
win the race from his antagonist or the money from his
neighbour, if he would lay up a stock of wealth, or leisure,
or of any thing else, let him set all his studding sails, and
catch even the breeze that would suffer the thistle's down
to slip through its embraces.
Gariveilan, standing off the entrance of Loch Bernera,
is rendered a striking object by its lofty arch ; but the
shore hence, to Ness, is formed of low cliffs, sloping de-
clivities, or sandy shores, presenting very little interest.