cock crew from within; its progress
seemed instantly arrested; it stood still, rose about the height of a
ship's mast, and then began again to descend. The cock crew a second
time; it rose as before; and, after mounting considerably higher than at
first, again sank in the line of the cottage, to be again arrested by
the crowing of the cock. It mounted yet a third time, rising higher
still; and, in its last descent, had almost touched the roof, when the
faint clap of wings was heard as if whispered over the water, followed
by a still louder note of defiance from the cock. The meteor rose with a
bound, and, continuing to ascend until it seemed lost among the stars,
did not again appear. Next night, however, at the same hour, the same
scene was repeated in all its circumstances: the meteor descended, the
dog howled, the owl whooped, the cock crew. On the following morning the
shipmaster visited the miller's, and, curious to ascertain how the
cottage would fare when the cock was away, he purchased the bird; and,
sailing from the bay before nightfall, did not return until about a
month after.

On his voyage inwards, he had no sooner doubled an intervening headland,
than he stepped forward to the bows to take a peep at the cottage: it
had vanished. As he approached the anchoring ground, he could discern a
heap of blackened stones occupying the place where it had stood; and he
was informed on going ashore, that it had been burnt to the ground, no
one knew how, on the very night he had quitted the bay. He had it
re-built and furnished, says the story, deeming himself what one of the
old schoolmen perhaps term the _occasional_ cause of the disaster. He
also returned the cock,--probably a not less important benefit,--and no
after accident befel the cottage. About fifteen years ago there was a
human skeleton dug up near the scene of the tradition, with the skull,
and the bones of the legs and feet, lying close together, as if the body
had been huddled up twofold in a hole; and this discovery led to that of
the story, which, though at one time often repeated and extensively
believed, had been suffered to sleep in the memories of a few elderly
people for nearly sixty years.

CHAPTER VII.

Relation of the deep red stone of Cromarty to the Ichthyolite Beds
of the System--Ruins of a Fossil-charged Bed--Journey to Avoch--Red
Dye of the Boulder-clay distinct from the substance
itself--Variation of Coloring in