Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

LOCH SCAVIG. 405
SKY. LOCH SCAVIG. CORUISK.
We have all heard how the mind of a Highlander is
elevated by the sublimity of the scenery which surrounds
him, how the majesty of the universe inspires him with
a sense of the dignity of his own nature, how the spirit
of poetry breathes around him from the cloud-capt moun-
tain and the foaming torrent, how the voice of the thun-
der and the roar of the ocean make him a Fingal, and
how the mild breeze of evening, scattering the thistle's
beard, exalts him to an Ossian. Honest Donald; he
thinks as much about the scenery around him as his cow :
the best rig of land and the Avarmest wintering for his
cattle, are to him the picturesque and the sublime. But
as I was observed to have an attachment to rocks, I was
told that, at Loch Scavig, I should find rocks enough. It
was in vain to ask if it was beautiful, or picturesque;
was it a bonny place. No, it was as far from bonny as
possible; but it " was all rocks upon the top of each
other," and was " very big and high," and was only to
be got at by sea. All this promised something. Donald's
betters knew as little of it as himself; but some had
heard the same character of it. At length I found one
gentleman, yet he was not of Sky, who had seen it;
though I eventually discovered that the proprietor had
actually visited it once. Yet this evidence went little
further than Donald's ; it was all rocks, no grass, " a
very rough country," it was not worth the trouble of
going so far. In all this, there was not a word but about
the sea and Loch Scavig; no hints of a lake, nor of a
VOL. III. H I!