oll is situated on the sea shore, looking over the broad
ocean towards Norway. From that country, in the early ages of Scottish
history, came many a powerful Jarl, or daring Vikingr, to the coasts,
which, in comparison with their own land, seemed fertile and wealthy.
There is a tradition of a Highland clan having sprung from one of those
adventurers, who with his brother agreed that whoever should first touch
the land would possess it by right.

The foremost was the ultimate ancestor of the tribe; his boat was almost
on shore, when the other, by a vigorous stroke, shot a-head of him; but
ere he could disembark, the disappointed competitor, with an exclamation
of rage, cut off his left hand with his hatchet, and flinging the bloody
trophy on the rocks, became, by thus "first touching Scottish ground,"
the owner of the country and founder of the clan. The perfect accuracy
of this story cannot now be vouched for; but it is an undeniable fact
that the clan MacLeod have successfully traced their origin to a
Norwegian source; and there is a probability that the claim is correct
from the manifestly Norwegian names borne by the founders of the Clan
_Tormod_ and _Torquil_, hence the _Siol Tormod_--the race of Tormod--the
MacLeods of Harris; and the _Siol Torquil_, the race of
_Torquil_--MacLeods of Lewis--of whom came the MacLeods of Assynt, one
of whom betrayed Montrose in 1650, and from whom the estates passed away
in the end of the seventeenth century to the Mackenzies.

The MacLeods of Cadboll are cadets of the house of Assynt. But to what
branch the Lady May of the legend belonged it is difficult to decide, so
many changes having occurred among Highland proprietors.

The cliffs of this part of Ross-shire are wild and precipitous, sinking
with a sheer descent of two hundred feet to the ocean. The scenery is
more rugged than beautiful--little verdure and less foliage. Trees are
stunted by the bitter eastern blast, and the soil is poor. Alders are,
however, plentiful, and from them the parish has derived its name of
Fearn. There is a number of caves in the cliffs along the shore towards
Tarbet, where the promontory is bold, and crowned with a lighthouse,
whose flickering rays are now the only substitute for the wonderful gem
which was said of yore to sparkle on the brow of one of these eastern
cliffs,--a bountiful provision of nature for the succour of the
wave-tossed mariner.

During the reign of one of the early Stuart ki