J u l y 2 9 .
L i t t l e L o c h -
B r o o m .
■Ju l y 30.
..tifely in the boats, or in falting of the herrings, and feem gd
board as aukward as marines in companion of able feamen. A
bounty on thefe home captures would Simulate the people to inJ
duftry ; would drive from their minds the thoughts of miuraJ
tions.; and would never lefien.the number of.feamen, as it would]
. be an incitement. for more adventurers to -fit out -veflels, becaufel
,they would have a double chance of freight, from their own cap-1
.tures, -and -from thofe of ,the refidents, who might form a ftoclJ
from ihoals of fifh, which often efcape while the.former are wind!
• bound, or wandering from loch, to loch.
Weigh anchor, and fail with a favorable breeze towards the!
mouth of the bay, with a defign o f returning South; but to-|
wards evening the .wind changes, cold weather and .hard adverfe
.gales fucceed., which oblige us .to tack and .anchor in the moutfJ
of Little„Loch-Braom, an.arm of thefea, about feven miles long!
.and not. half a mile broad, bounded by high mountains, covered!
in many parts with birch woods. The hill Talloch-EJJie may via
with the higheft I have feen.
For two hours amufe otirfelves with taking with hand-linesl
.abundance o f cod, fome dog-filh, and a curious ray.
The night was moft tempeftuous : our lituation was difagreea-J
.ble, as .Mr.- Lhompfon thought our veflel would drive, an d that hel
ihould be obliged to cut his cables, and put to fea; which, un-J
,der the circumftances of a black night, a furious ftorm, andl
.rocky narrows, did not contribute to the repofe o f frefli-waterl
feamen.
The wind grows moderate : in weighing anchor difcover on thej
cable feveral vey uncommon AJlerU. No fooner was our anchor!
on
on board, but a furious fquall arifes, and blows in blafts like a sta l l s .
hurricane, driving us before it at a vaft rate, till we arrived within
a mile of the bottom o f the loch. Drop anchor, but without
efeft s are obliged to veigh again, while the furious gale engages
I an attention to the fails, and flings us into a double perplexity in
this narrow ftrait, where for an hour our tacks were almoft perpetual,
and the veflel frequently in no fmall danger. The blafts
from the mountains, were tremendous, not only raifing a vaft fea,
hut catching up the waves in eddies, and raifing them up in the
air to a furprizing height. A t length we were relieved from our
dtftrefs by a fuccefsful anchorage, under a high and finely wooded
hill, in eight fathom water, but within a fmall diftance, of
eighty. •
Procure horfes, by favor of Kenneth Mac-kenzie, Efq; of Dun-
Homi. Ride about a mile on' the fide of the hill, above the loch j
arrive in a fmall but fertile plain, winding among the vaft mountains,
and adorned with a pretty river and woods o f alder. Here
we were rejoiced with the fight of enclofures long ftrangers to us :
the hay was good, the bear and oats excellent; but the manner of
manuring, called m thefe parts tathing, was very Angular: many
of the fields were covered with the boughs o f alders, lately c u t :
thefe are left during the whole Winter to rot; in March the ground
is cleared of the undecayed parts, and then ploughed. Fern is
alfo ufed for the fame end. Reach
D u n d o n n e l . Determined to go by land to vifit Loch-maree, a
great lake to the South: and diredt Mr. Lhompfon to fail, and
wait for us at Gair-loch.
C c c [We