The soap used at that period in Scotland is said to have amounted to about 400,880 pounds annually. In 1845 it is estimated that 27,000,000 pounds were consumed.

We remained half an hour in Armadale Bay, and the same length of time off Glenelg, a village on the Scotch coast. The Sound of Sleat contracts here to a narrow land-locked strait of great depth, the Admiralty chart showing soundings of 73 fathoms close to the shore. The Sound is bounded on the north by the grand mountains of Ross-shire, and on the west by the peaks of Skye. From the Sound you emerge into Loch Alsh, a magnificent sheet of water, also of great depth, and then steaming west, pass into the straits of Kyle-Akin, through which the tide sets with great rapidity. now passed the entrance to Loch Carron, and to the south of Paba, a soft green isle that seems as if it had drifted from the south and had stranded in these northern waters. The verdant and level nature of this island is due to its belonging to the Lias formation, which here occupies a belt from Broadford to Loch Slapin, in which blue lochans alternate with marsh and moor.

We

We now swept into Broadford Bay, where we made another long stoppage. Our course now lay through the Sounds of Scalpa and Raasay, both so narrow that you can see the country on either side very distinctly. Huge rock ramparts, ribbed by emerald-like bands of

succulent herbage, dip into the sea, here so transparent that you can see far down into its green depths. Occasionally the ramparts recede, and you see little patches of oats that the islanders have coaxed the churlish ground to yield; far up amidst the clouds rise the serrated ridges of the trap mountains of Skye, and on your right the sandstone cliffs of Raasay, like titanic battlements. The west side of Raasay is grimly barren, but on the east nature is less sterile, and the hospitality of Raasay is not extinct. It was here, as you will remember, that Dr. Johnson was so surprised and pleased by the contrast between the savage barrenness of the island and the elegance and hospitality of Raasay House, that he said, "In Raasay, if I could have found an Ulysses, I had fancied a Phœacia."

When we had run half way up Raasay we opened a noble arm of the sea on the left, the entrance to Loch Portree. This is bounded on two sides by magnificent cliffs streaked by ribbon-like lines of verdure, produced by the grass growing on the rock ledges. Enterprising sheep, in what biologists would call their struggle for existence on these barren heights, may be seen eating their way on the dizzy shelves; a venture not unfrequently fatal to the animals, for they go so far along them that, not having the sagacity to retreat backwards, they topple down precipices in their ineffectual attempts to push forwards.

This was

Portree Bay is worthy of its royal name. given in consequence of the ship in which James V. voyaged round Scotland having remained some time in the bay. This could harbour an immense fleet, being sheltered from every wind. Far above the mural cliffs that spring from the sea, rise grand mountains; that on the south is called Bein Inivaig, or the hill of protection or defiance, and that at the head of the harbour AitheSuider Fhin, or the seat of Fingal, from whence the Ossianic hero is said to have directed the chase. Fit framing this for an Hebridean Genoa; but when you steam to the head of the bay, two miles from the mouth, you only see a small town, destitute of a single building of importance. This is Portree, built at the base of a craggy wooded promontory jutting into the bay. The steamer creeps alongside of this promontory, which dips vertically into the sea, here of great depth, and you land in the heart of the metropolis of Skye, under trees which throw their branches across the rocky path leading to the inn at the top of the cliff. It was just one o'clock when we landed, so that we had been twentyfive hours en voyage from Oban.

CHAP. XXX.

The Storr Rock. - Prince Charles' Cave. Geology of the Storr Mountain.-Portree.-Its Condition.-Disquisition on Pigs.-Aversion of the Inhabitants to Pork.-Sillocks.-Meet a Frenchman.-His Love for "le Sport."-M. Neckar.-Proceed to Uig.—Trodda-nish. -Angus Fionn.- How to Strangle your Enemy.- Rain.— The Isle of Mists.-The Evil Eye.-Arrive at Uig.-Quiraing.-A stiff Climb. - Wonderful Rock Scenery. - The Platform of Quiraing. — Duntulm Castle. -The Kings of Skye. A Black Villain. Horrible Death. Return to Uig.

ORDERING a late dinner, I set off with a gentleman to see the Storr Rock, about seven miles from Portree. I say about seven, for though this may be the distance by road, we curtailed it considerably by striking, steeplechase fashion, across the moorland which slopes from. the grand mural ramparts dipping into the Sound, to the flat interior valley between Storr and Sligachan.

If you have a dislike to wet feet I cannot recommend this route, for the moorland is very moist, and it is quite possible, if you are not an expert "bog-trotter," you may make a deeper and closer acquaintance with soft mosses than you bargain for. But there is one advan

PRINCE CHARLES' CAVE.

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tage in this over-moor route: you cannot miss your way, unless, indeed, you are so unfortunate as to be wrapped in mist. When a little above Portree you see the head of the Storr Rock above the line of cliffs, and it continues your faithful beacon to the end of your expedition.

Ascending continually, an hour's sharp walking brought us to the edge of the cliffs above the cave where Prince Charles remained concealed for some time during his adventurous life in the Hebrides. Had we been romantically disposed we should probably have made a pilgrimage to the cave; but neither of us had sufficient love for the Prince's memory to turn aside to see his marine villa. An hour more scrambling and we stood on the side of the Storr, gazing with wonder mingled with awe at the sublime scene before us. Some 500 feet of the mountain, which is 2343 feet above the sea, is vertical on the sea-side, and beneath this precipice the mountain slopes bristle with a congregation of fantastic peaks, pinnacles, and spires springing from a chaos of shattered rocks.

What, you will ask, wrought all this ruin, for these toppling crags and pinnacles were evidently once uni ted Geology will answer.

The north-west portion of Skye, from Portree to Loch Staffin, presents a range of grand sea cliffs, capped by trap mountains, that of Storr being the