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anfwer was given them, the converfation being in Erfe, I was not much inclined to examine.

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They expected no good event of the voyage; for one of them declared that he heard the cry of an English ghoft. This omen I was not told till after our return, and therefore cannot claim the dignity of defpifing it.

The fea was fmooth. We never left the fhore, and came without any disaster to the cavern, which we found rugged and misfhapen, about one hundred and eighty, feet long, thirty wide in the broadest part, and in the loftieft, as we gueffed, about thirty high. It was now dry, but at high water the fea rifes in it near fix feet., Here I faw what I had never feen before, limpets and muffels in their natural state. But, as a new teftimony to the veracity of

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common fame, here was no echo to he heard,

We then walked through a natural arch in the rock, which might have pleased us by its novelty, had the ftones, which incumbered our feet, given us leisure to confider it. We were shown the gummy feed of the kelp, that faftens itself to a ftone, from which it grows into a strong stalk.

In our return, we found a little boy upon the point of a rock, catching with his angle, a fupper for the family. We rowed up to him, and borrowed his rod, with which Mr. Bofwell caught a cuddy.

The cuddy is a fish of which I know not the philofophical name. It is not much bigger than a gudgeon, but is of great use in thefe Iflands, as it affords the lower people both food, and oil for their lamps. Cuddies are fo abundant, at fome times of VOL. I.

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the year, that they are caught like whitebait in the Thames, only by dipping a basket and drawing it back,

If it were always practicable to fish, thefe Islands could never be in much danger from famine; but unhappily, in the winter, when other provifion fails, the feas are commonly too rough for nets, or boats.

TALISKER IN SKY.

From Ulinib, our next ftage was to Talifker, the houfe of colonel Macleod, an officer in the Dutch fervice, who, in this time of univerfal peace, has for feveral years been permitted to be abfent from his regiment. Having been bred to physick, he is confequently a fcholar, and his lady, by accompanying him in his different places of refidence, is become, fkilful in feveral languages. Talifker is the place beyond all that I have seen, from which the gay and the

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jovial feem utterly excluded; and where the hermit might expect to grow old in meditation, without poffibility of disturbance or interruption. It is fituated very near the fea, but upon a coaft where no veffel lands but when it is driven by a tempeft on the rocks. Towards the land are lofty hills ftreaming with water-falls.

The garden is sheltered by firs or pines, which grow there fo profperously, that fome, which the prefent inhabitant planted, are very high and thick.

At this place we very happily met Mr. Donald Maclean, a young gentleman, the eldest son of the Laird of Col, heir to a very great extent of land, and fo defirous of improving his inheritance, that he spent a confiderable time among the farmers of Hertfordshire, and Hampshire, to learn their practice. He worked with his own hands at the principal operations of agriculture, that he might not deceive himself I 2

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by a falfe opinion of fkill, which, if he should find it deficient at home, he had no means of completing. If the world has agreed to praife the travels and manual labours of the Czar of Mufcovy, let Col have his fhare of the like applaufe, in the proportion of his dominions to the empire of Russia.

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This young gentleman was sporting in the mountains of Sky, and when he was weary with following his game, repaired for lodging to Talifker, At night he miffed one of his dogs, and when he went to feek him in the morning, found two eagles feeding on his carcals."

Col, for he nuft be named by his poffeffons, hearing that our intention was to

fit Jona, offered to conduct us to his chief, Sir Allan Maclean, who lived in the itle of Inch Kenneth, and would readily find us a convenient paflage. From this

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