Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

LOCH SCAVKJ.
400
'a. principle as ingenious as it was new to me, then un-
skilled in Celtic navigation. Dr. Keating's Phenician the-
ory must certainly be wrong*. The Queen of the ancient
ocean never can have left such a progeny as this. I almost
doubt ifmy own Norwegian one will hold. I explained to
the men that whenever we moved we went sideways, and
that when we did not go sideways we stood still. But any
thing- was preferable to rowing-; and as long as the wind
was blowing- the sail about, they were satisfied. " He
must have a long- spoon, however, that would sup por-
ridge with the deil ;" and as neither Saxon authority,
Saxon money, nor Saxon arguments, seemed of any avail,
the Saxon steersman was obliged to have recourse to a
little nautical cunning. A grey squall was just ruffling
the water a-head ; so 1 threw the boat up into the wind,
brought the sail aback, and the whole apparatus, garters,
skewers, blankets, broomstick, and tree, all v/ent over-
board. I arrived at Loch Scavig, of course, a little before
dark, just in time to put about and return, made fresh
vows never to go into a Highland boat again, and spent
half the night at sea.
Even from a distance, the aspect of this part of Sky is
very striking. The loftiness of the Cuchullin hills, which
exceed 3000 feet, renders them no less conspicuous from
sea, than their remarkable serrated and bold forms. Bla-
ven, still higher, is equally graceful in the outline; and,
as the land stretches away to the eastward, the whole
mountain-group of Sky seems to form a continued chain,
as diversified in composition as it is rendered remarkable
by thus rising- immediately out of the water. In ap-
proaching nearer, as the spiry summits of Blaven and the
Cuchullin increase in height and importance, assuming
those forms which we expect only in the Alps and which
are so rare in Scotland, their peculiar colour adds greatly
to their very bold and striking effect. I noticed formerly*