Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

382 RONA.
equally conjectural, and we found it a beautiful and spa-
cious bay, with deep water and good clean ground, per-
fectly land-locked by a small island by which it is covered,
and having a double entrance. It is one of the most
accessible and secure harbours on this coast, and is so
peculiarly convenient for vessels making this passage in
short days, when there is no other anchorage nearer than
Portree, or for those going round Sky, that it well deserves
to be better known. That it was known to some of the
coasting vessels, we soon discovered ;
as we had not long
dropped our anchor when there came in, by the north
entrance, a vessel loaded with deals from Norway. She
was a large ill-found sloop, and seemed water-logged
and in distress, her gunwale being near the water's edge.
But, on going on board, we found this was a piece of
Irish economy. She was navigated by three as perfect
Paddies as I ever saw, who had brought her on, thus far,
from Norway, in this condition, determined that she should
carry double ;
as, whatever else might happen, she could
not sink. If she was in the habit of making trips of
this kind, assuredly her crew was not born to be drowned.
It is probable that this very harbour is Dean Monro's
" haven for Heiland galeys ;" " the same havein being
guyed for fostering of theives, ruggers, and reivars, till a
nail, upon the peilling and spulzeing of poure pepill."
" Nor is there any reason to doubt the Dean's authority in
a point of this kind ; though, as I have already said, his
book is a very meagre and incorrect performance. In
his geography, he jumps from Lismore to Isla, and from
Sky to Barra Head, and then to Pol Ewe. His informa-
tion is as scanty as it is inaccurate and ill arranged ; and
did he not assert the fact, we might almost doubt that he
had visited the Islands. He describes lona, certainly not
like a man who had seen it : and though this ought to have
formed a main object of his pursuit, if any thing did, he