ried rows of motionless cormorants, which seemed as if they had lately enjoyed an abundant fish dinner. Seeing so many birds, I was led to ask the lighthouse keeper whether many were killed during storms by dashing against the lanthorn at night. To my surprise he answered in the negative, and added that the few birds killed were not sea-fowl, but land-birds, and principally larks. From more than one projection did I peer down the stupendous precipices of this noble Cape, and when the waning day obliged me to turn away, I carried off from a far jutting rock a beautiful specimen of the roseate granite, which in the shape of a paper weight is now lying before me. Never did I long more for a storm than here, for to stand on Cape Wrath and contemplate the war of wind and water under such influences must be a spectacle of rare grandeur. You may be glad to know that, although the lighthouse keepers are forbidden to give visitors a bed when the weather is fine, they are permitted to entertain storm-overtaken travellers. There are two or three very comfortable bed-rooms and a sitting-room provided for the convenience of the Commissioners of Lighthouses when making their official visit. CHAP. XXI. Part from my Companion.-Expedition to Far-out Head.-Sandy Wilderness.-Nature of the Head.-Grim Rocks.-Numerous Wrecks -A Boatman's reason for having bad Sails.-Flotsome and Jetsome. Ruined Chapel of Durin.-Quaint Mortuary Inscriptions.-Piratical Freebooter.-Summer Residence of the Lords of Reay.-Banamhorar-Chat; The Great Lady of the Cat.-The Free Kirkers.-The Government Kirk.-Demoralising Effect of the Wick Fishery. ON our return to Durin we partook of a hurried repast, and my friend returned to Tongue. The separation was by no means pleasant. Our travels in wild Sutherland, where tourists are few, brought us into close companionship, and we soon found that we had many sympathies in common. Left alone, I devoted the evening to an expedition to Far-out Head, the extremity of which is four miles from Durin. The way for the first mile lies across a wilderness of sand, and then along the summit of the cliffs, which rise as you advance to the end of the Head, until they attain the elevation of between 300 and 400 feet. From the extremity of the Head, which is composed of micaceous and siliceous flagstones, I obtained a glorious view of Cape Wrath, behind which the sun was setting in golden glory. Long to be remembered is the hour that I spent on this lonely headland. During my walk I did not see a single living thing, and yet I did not feel alone with the wild waves around me, which were breaking with thunder tones on the grim rocks terrible and fatal to many gallant ships, which, having struggled long in this tempestuous North Sea, have been dashed to fragments upon them. You see portions of their weather-worn ribs sticking among the rocks, like the bones of some great sea monster. But wrecks on Far-out Head are happily now not nearly so numerous as they were prior to the erection of the lighthouse on Cape Wrath. In those dark days many a little fortune was made by what was called a providential wreck. "How happens it," said the late Mr. Stevenson to a grisly boatman on the north coast of Scotland, "that your sails are so bad?" "If," answered the sailor, "it had been God's wull that you hadna built sae mony lighthouses, I wad hae had new sails last wunter." But Flotsome and Jetsome are not yet myths. I slept at Durin in sheets made from the cotton cargo of a ship wrecked during the preceding winter on Far-out Head, and the counterpane was manufactured from the same material. CURIOUS EPITAPHS. 241 On my way back I made a slight détour to see the ruined Chapel of Durin, belonging to the old Augustine monastery at Dornoch. It stands near the head of the bay, where the waves from the great deep sink to rest as they roll up the sands, and is surrounded by a cemetery, in which I lingered until the fading light was too weak to enable me to decipher the inscriptions on the tombstones. Almost all the epitaphs contain allusions to storms or to the sea. Here are two that I copied : "Ten 1 ANNE INNES, SPOUSE OF DONALD INNES. yeares the genuine copy of a virtuous wife Clear is her prospect of landing safe from all the storms of Life:" MARY, SPOUSE OF EDWARD LOCH. "Here lyis my der spous, who lang was toss'd We cannot commend the logic, spelling, or poetry of the epitaphs of these bereaved husbands, who, however, seem to take comfort by the belief that their wives are in the regions of the blessed. But perhaps the most noteworthy inscription is that on the tombstone of the piratical freebooter, Donald Mac-Murshov-ic-evin-mhoir, which he is said to have composed himself. It runs thus: R "Donald Mac-Murshov heir lyis lo, Vas ill to his frend and var to his fo But true to his maister in veird and vo Near the ruined chapel stands a substantial manoirlike structure, interesting as having long been the summer residence of the Lords of Reay: now it is occupied by a substantial farmer. On returning to my inn I found a cheerful fire and a substantial tea, while partaking of which Mrs. Ross chatted with me. It was pleasant to hear her praises of Banamhorar-Chat, or the great Lady of the Cat, the Gaelic title of the Duchess of Sutherland, and how she had spent five days in the little inn, and "behaved just like any other lady, not in the least proud." In answer to my questions, Mrs. Ross told me that the population of Durin are almost without exception Free Kirkers. She "was long loth to cast her lot with them, apprehending the Duke's displeasure," but now she was a happy woman, and she did not think that the Duke or Duchess "minded her shifting." The Government kirk, she added, "might well be shut up" the same story you see everywhere. The people, according to Mrs. Ross, are very religiously inclined, with the exception of those who go yearly to the Wick fishery. The girls bring back about 87., but the money is dearly earned, for it appears that they come back terribly demoralised. |