morning; and as soon as I had a bite to eat, set
forth upon a tour of exploration. Something in my heart distinctly told
me that I should find the ship of the Armada; and although I did not give
way entirely to such hopeful thoughts, I was still very light in spirits
and walked upon air. Aros is a very rough islet, its surface strewn with
great rocks and shaggy with fernland heather; and my way lay almost north
and south across the highest knoll; and though the whole distance was
inside of two miles it took more time and exertion than four upon a level
road. Upon the summit, I paused. Although not very high--not three
hundred feet, as I think--it yet outtops all the neighbouring lowlands of
the Ross, and commands a great view of sea and islands. The sun, which
had been up some time, was already hot upon my neck; the air was listless
and thundery, although purely clear; away over the north-west, where the
isles lie thickliest congregated, some half-a-dozen small and ragged
clouds hung together in a covey; and the head of Ben Kyaw wore, not
merely a few streamers, but a solid hood of vapour. There was a threat
in the weather. The sea, it is true, was smooth like glass: even the
Roost was but a seam on that wide mirror, and the Merry Men no more than
caps of foam; but to my eye and ear, so long familiar with these places,
the sea also seemed to lie uneasily; a sound of it, like a long sigh,
mounted to me where I stood; and, quiet as it was, the Roost itself
appeared to be revolving mischief. For I ought to say that all we
dwellers in these parts attributed, if not prescience, at least a quality
of warning, to that strange and dangerous creature of the tides.

I hurried on, then, with the greater speed, and had soon descended the
slope of Aros to the part that we call Sandag Bay. It is a pretty large
piece of water compared with the size of the isle; well sheltered from
all but the prevailing wind; sandy and shoal and bounded by low
sand-hills to the west, but to the eastward lying several fathoms deep
along a ledge of rocks. It is upon that side that, at a certain time
each flood, the current mentioned by my uncle sets so strong into the
bay; a little later, when the Roost begins to work higher, an undertow
runs still more strongly in the reverse direction; and it is the action
of this last, as I suppose, that has scoured that part so deep. Nothing
is to be seen out of Sandag Bay, but one small segment of the hori