Oersa, Baiska, Macfadyen, or Risanvade, and Risentrue; and in the bay, Buid-he-more, Macnevan, Mc Alken, or Mc Alkan, Islan Rea, or Righ-both three miles longLiath, Sgeir Mhor, and Rabbit.

And there is the view from Craig Castle, looking over the fringing woods of little Loch Craignish, the long neck of Druimha Chaistell, the large isle of Risanvie, and the tiny rock of Corr-easa, and Ben Scarba looming over the jaws of Corrievrechan on the horizon, a combination as eccentric as beautiful. We are fascinated by the loveliness of this nook of the Hebrides, and exclaim, with Fitz Eustace,

"Where's the coward that would not dare
To fight for such a land!"

:

The group of islets that lie around us are all geologically allied their rock is mica and clay-schist, with quartz and grauwacke-Oronsay, Colonsay, and their satellite rocklets, are of entire schist; but in Islay there is a bit of limestone, and distinct interlacing veins run down from Lunga through Scarba and Jura to Ilay.

We are now in a very labyrinth of islets and rocklets, and the jumble of their ancient and modern names is a perfect puzzle. If we consult the Dean he enlightens us in this style,-"Narrist to this forsaid iyle layes ther ane rochie knolie callit in Erische, Garrowhillach, Nauronow," &c. &c. ; but modern charts completely ignore the Erse, and the book of the High Dean is so far a blank. Out of the boat track there lie the Sounds of Shuna and of Melfort, scenes of perfect loveliness; and the very ocean wave is now almost as calm as the bosom

of the lochs, save that we are floating over the most eccentric liquid mirrors we ever beheld: the boat glides through the water that lies about in circular patches smooth as glass, without raising a ripple at its bows or a wake at its stern, the waters closing in at once behind the rudder.

The beautiful Shuna-blooming almost unseen-lies floating, as it were, like a swan on the bosom of its loch. Its geology, like that of Gigha, is most eccentric, laced in veins of clay, slate, argil, schist, and red sand; and

from its bosky mounds, teeming with velvet moss, the hills of Lorn, Aanish, and Dagnish, nearly 900 feet high, rise up in fine perspective. Loch Melfort is more secluded, being locked in by Shuna and Luing, and Seil, and Torsa, a little oval islet with a green mound 200 feet high. There are the relics of a fort and a church and

C

Dog Castle; and there is a causeway at low tide to Luing (Lung, ship, Gaelic), a large islet with its northern point rising 700 feet. More on the ocean lies a quaint and scattered group of five islets, blocks of lime

stone.

GARVALOCH-GORVILAC, GARROW HELLACH

ISLETS

OF THE SEA" (GARB CLACH, RUGGED ROCK.")

The scene of Harriet Martineau's rhapsody of Ella. There are Gorvelac, Garvelloch, or Garv-na-mhor, Gialachna-Clairsac, or Ilachanu, with its alternate ridges and combes; Eileach-a-naoinha, Dun-chaoul, and Garvnaskein, or Coulie.

There are the funny little islets of Inys Capel and Bach; and there is the wide mound of Easdale, with its rich slate mines, and close on hand, to which it is joined by a bridge, the flat islet of Seil.

Emerging from among this cluster of islets, the blue mountains of Mull at once arrest the eye, and the green ridge of Kerrera contrasts finely with its mighty masses. On the point of this ridge is perched, 1200 feet high, on an old sand rock, the Castle of Gylen, a stronghold of the McDougals. The position is most outlandish, overlooking a rocky cave of the wildest character. This Kerrera is two miles long, of trap, with bits of schist, sand, and limestone, which stratification can be traced through all the slate isles to Scarba.

In the coves, especially Horseshoe Cove, heliotropes of rich quality are discovered. There is a ferry from Oban cliffs to Kerrera, and thence to Mull. It was on Kerrera,

at Dalry, "the King's field," that Alexander II. died, his death-bed being illumined with the vision of St. Olave, St. Magnus, and St. Columba.

And now we glide along Kerrera Sound into the landlocked bay of Oban (Oban, a bay), the grand centre from which radiate the varied routes of the northern and western tourists. It is withal a most genial resort for invalids and convalescents-pure mild air-an incessant liveliness of scene-boats arriving and departinghotels and houses in which complete domestic comfort may be attained for every grade; and there is a due sprinkling of divines and doctors, and geologists and painters, to impart a character of quietude and science and art to the heterogeneous mass of travellers to and fro. And we counsel all to be very inquisitive at Oban, and to collect placards and papers, and arrange the day for Mull, Staffa, and Iona, or Glencoe, or Skye, or Stornoway, or Inverness; we cannot learn too much-we cannot economize time too often-we cannot be too active to compass the treasury of beauty which the Hebrides now display before us; for the whole voyage from Oban to Skye is one splendid series of subjects, especially the scenery of the sea lochs, which increase almost progressively in magnificence from Loch Etive to Loch Eribol, in Sutherland, splitting the mountains into the grandest ravines, the grey and red cliffs riven into majestic crags and passes, the fringes of forest trees coming down into the water, far eclipsing in beauty and variety the pet scenes of the interior; the incessant changes of light and shadow, and the play of elemental effect, constitute the Hebrides one exquisite diorama.

We are bound for

MULL-MALEOS.

And yonder is Ben Mhor, looming in deep purple over the green ridge of Kerrera, the light of Lismore, and Duart Castle, guarding the jaws of its mighty sound, while Ardtornish, more distant, gleams like a phantom between them.

Wefloat along by the woody brow and mouldering keep of Dunolly, perching like an eyrie on its iron-grey rock, but not exactly on Loch Etive, as Sir Walter would have it passing near the limpid spring of Tobarnan Gall-the Well of the Stranger, and the Clach-nan-can, the Dog's Stone, an upright block, to which Fiongal tied his dog Bran when he went in to visit Lorn. In this Dunolly, be it remembered, was burned the famous "Brooch of Lorn," which was so finely buttressed by towers and adorned by the richest chasing, and surmounted by a charm-fraught globe of crystal.