rough the
narrows of Kyle Akin. The village of this name was designed by the late
Lord M'Donald for a great seaport town; but it refused to grow; and it
has since become a gentleman in a small way, and does nothing. It forms,
however, a handsome group of houses, pleasantly situated on a flat green
tongue of land, on the Skye side, just within the opening of the Kyle;
and there rises on an eminence beyond it a fine old tower, rent open, as
if by an earthquake, from top to bottom, which forms one of the most
picturesque objects I have almost ever seen in a landscape. There are
bold hills all around, and rocky islands, with the ceaseless rush of
tides in front; while the cloven tower, rising high over the shore, is
seen, in threading the Kyles, whether from the south or north, relieved
dark against the sky, as the central object in the vista. We find it
thus described by the Messrs. Anderson of Inverness, in their excellent
"Guide Book,"--by far the best companion of the kind with which the
traveller who sets himself to explore our Scottish Highlands can be
provided. "Close to the village of Kyle Akin are the ruins of an old
square keep, called Castle Muel or Maoil, the walls of which are of a
remarkable thickness. It is said to have been built by the daughter of a
Norwegian king, married to a Mackinnon or Macdonald, for the purpose of
levying an impost on all vessels passing the Kyles, excepting, says the
tradition, those of her own country. For the more certain exaction of
this duty, she is reported to have caused a strong chain to be stretched
across from shore to shore; and the spot in the rocks to which the
terminal links were attached is still pointed out." It was high time for
us to be home. The dinner hour came; but, in meet illustration of the
profound remark of Trotty-Veck, not the dinner. We had been in a cold
Moderate district, whence there came no half-dozens of eggs, or whole
dozens of trout, or pailfuls of razor-fish, and in which hard
cabin-biscuit cost us sixpence per pound. And now our stores were
exhausted, and we had to dine as best we could, on our last half-ounce
of tea, sweetened by our last quarter of a pound of sugar. I had marked,
however, a dried thornback hanging among the rigging. It had been there
nearly three weeks before, when I came first aboard, and no one seemed
to know for how many weeks previous; for as it had come to be a sort of
fixture in the vessel, it could be looked at without being