Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

KYLE IIAKEN. 443
eastward, leading to the entrances of Loch Duich and
Loch Long, formerly described.
My orthography of Kyle Rich, reminds me that I owe
you, even yourself, Sir Walter, a note. You have re-
peated, in your Minstrelsy, the tradition of the people on
these places; but it is an unfounded one. It is Kyle
Rich, the swift straight, not Ree, that of the King : an
etymology that would be of no moment, but for the frag-
ment of true and false history, which it involves. It was
not, therefore, named after Haco ; and I have formerly
shown that he was not " pursued and killed here," as he
died in his bed in Orkney. That Kyle Haken might,
however, have been named from him, is possible enough
from the circumstance of his fleet having anchored at the
Cailleach Stone. It is pleasant to see how things meet,
and opinions jostle in this world. While I was making
this very remark, in passing this very strait, your vessel
and mine brushed pinions, like crows ; and it would not
be very surprising if you had then been employed upon
your own edition of the tale.
Though the passage of the Kyle Haken strait is far
more spacious than that of the Kyle Rich, it is by no
means easy, and is often singularly teasing in head-
winds ;
so much so indeed, that vessels are often defeated
in their attempts. If teasing, it is also entertaining; at
least, to loungers like us, who are in no hurry, and who
are as well entertained with adventures or facts in one
place as in another. The whole of these seas, as I for-
merly remarked, abound with strange tides, and often
with very unaccountable ones: here they are peculiarly
irregular, yet not very difficult of explanation. The
great basin of Loch Alsh, comprising also Loch Duich
and Loch Long, must be filled by both apertures, that of
the Kyle Rich, and that of Kyle Haken ; as the flood
comes through both, and, consequently, in opposing di-
;