Volume 3 - Electric Scotland

472
LOCH SCAVIG.
the after leach in his hand; thus making a sort of small
lateen sail that could be taken in in an instant. But even
this proved unsafe ; the wind, on one occasion, entering
the boat, so as to blow the sail up the mast, and nearly
upsetting us. This is log-book matter ; but it is right
that you and others should profit by my experience.
Loch Scavig is a narrow but deep bay, surrounded by
lofty and steep mountains which exclude half the light of
day ; scarcely a mark of vegetation being perceptible on
the bare and brown acclivities which rise on all hands,
" tutto di pietro e di color ferrigno, come la cerchia che
d'intorno volge." We might almost imagine that Dante
had visited Scavig. Numerous projecting points and rocky
islets vary the scenery ; and the extremity is a deep basin,
enclosed seawards by promontories and islands, all equally
rugged and bare, rising in a solid wall to the height of
some hundred feet on the land side ; while, above, the
high peaks of the mountains tower over the whole. A
cascade, foaming down a lofty precipice, is the only ob-
ject that enlivens this scene of stillness and gloom ; the
solitude and fixed repose of which are rendered more
impressive by this contrast, and by the white wings of
the sea fowl silently wheeling above the dark green sea,
which, sheltered from the surge, seems, like all the sur-
rounding objects, for ever at rest.
This singular basin affords an anchorage, the most extra-
ordinary perhaps in the world. Embosomed in the midst of
high mountains, excluded from the sight of the sea, sur-
rounded with lofty precipices farovertoppingthemast,and
floating upon the dark and glassy surface, on which not a
billow heaves to betray its nature, we seem suddenly trans-
ferred to sotne mountain lake, as if anchored among the
ridges of the Alps. On one occasion, I had entered it with
my vessel, late in the evening. The clouds were gathering
over head, the birds were hastening away to their re-