ny
gratification of the eye or mind. We were now long enough acquainted
with hills and heath to have lost the emotion that they once raised,
whether pleasing or painful, and had our mind employed only on our own
fatigue. We were however sure, under Col's protection, of escaping all
real evils. There was no house in Mull to which he could not introduce
us. He had intended to lodge us, for that night, with a gentleman that
lived upon the coast, but discovered on the way, that he then lay in bed
without hope of life.

We resolved not to embarrass a family, in a time of so much sorrow, if
any other expedient could he found; and as the Island of Ulva was over-
against us, it was determined that we should pass the strait and have
recourse to the Laird, who, like the other gentlemen of the Islands, was
known to Col. We expected to find a ferry-boat, but when at last we came
to the water, the boat was gone.

We were now again at a stop. It was the sixteenth of October, a time
when it is not convenient to sleep in the Hebrides without a cover, and
there was no house within our reach, but that which we had already
declined.

ULVA

While we stood deliberating, we were happily espied from an Irish ship,
that lay at anchor in the strait. The master saw that we wanted a
passage, and with great civility sent us his boat, which quickly conveyed
us to Ulva, where we were very liberally entertained by Mr. Macquarry.

To Ulva we came in the dark, and left it before noon the next day. A
very exact description therefore will not be expected. We were told,
that it is an Island of no great extent, rough and barren, inhabited by
the Macquarrys; a clan not powerful nor numerous, but of antiquity, which
most other families are content to reverence. The name is supposed to be
a depravation of some other; for the Earse language does not afford it
any etymology. Macquarry is proprietor both of Ulva and some adjacent
Islands, among which is Staffa, so lately raised to renown by Mr. Banks.

When the Islanders were reproached with their ignorance, or insensibility
of the wonders of Staffa, they had not much to reply. They had indeed
considered it little, because they had always seen it; and none but
philosophers, nor they always, are struck with wonder, otherwise than by
novelty. How would it surprise an unenlightened ploughman, to hear a
company of sober men, inquiring by what power the hand tosses a stone, or
why the ston