|
A
flight to st.
kilda
The screw steamer
Hebrides,
which trades regularly during the year through the
Western Isles of Scotland, sails once a fortnight as far
as St. Kilda during the summer months. I took occasion
of some friends going there on the 21st of July last to
visit this remote island; not that I expected to see
much that was new, but I expected to see a little that
was curious, and I was not disappointed. Above all, I
wanted to be freshened up by getting out of the beaten
track, leaving behind me the everlasting Glasgow
Herald and Scotsman, and feeling myself once
more a child of nature and a citizen of the world! In
this I was wonderfully successful; and I came back, as
we all came back, in great spirits and abounding
health.
The
Hebrides
is a fair-sized steamer, with fairly good
accommodation. There were about sixty passengers in
all, and every berth was occupied. The entire cost was
four guineas, and the food was plentiful and wholesome.
We sailed from Greenock on Monday evening, and returned
on Saturday morning, being thus on the sea altogether
about four days and a half. We had magnificent weather
on the whole. On the night of our departure, we had a
fog near the Mull of Kintyre, which detained us five
hours or so. On the stretch between Harris and St.
Kilda, we had fifty miles of the Atlantic swell to face,
which made many of the passengers feel what they called
"vera bad." While on the last night of the voyage, the
rain came on pretty stiffly as we approached Greenock.
But during |
