Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1841-07-14


and feeling evidently in his acknowledge
ed manhood and more than brotherhood
some consolation for the bereavement
he was experiencing as his faithful friends
were leaving him behind them, in foreign
land.
The river soon broadened into Firth.
as the Scottish call their bavs. The
mountains retreated from each other, and
sails were to be seen here and there. at
anchor in the coves and harbors Of the
wide water, near their bases We met a
naval horse-race on the Firth, of eight
beautiful little vessels at the very top of
their speed. They were running the
heats--in wide circle, and leaning down
hard to the sea-close on each others
heels-all sail crowded, they made the
water foam white about their. prows. Il
was quite an animating sight-with none
of the painful sensations at seeing poor
quadruped horses scourged and pressed
beyond their powers. There was no dis
tress or faltering of wind in these graceful
little racers, as they swept the Firth of
Clyde.
A Mr. McTear, had come aboard the
steamer at Greenock for Dublin. He
was a Greenock merchant. We were
talking with him on the deck when We
spied conical rock, as it seemed rising
out of the water some distance ahead. Il
appeared through the mists like a hay
stack, and about as large We spoke Of
it to Mr.. McTear and he told us it was
.Ailsa Craig. We remembered mention
of it by Scott in the Lord of the Isles
where he calls it Rock instead of Craig
in the mouth of Robert Bruce A."
"Lord Of the Isles-my trust in the
Is firm as Ailsa Rock"
| We had supposed it was in the Forth, on
| the other side of Scotland. AS we were
looking at it, MIR. McTear asked us to
guess the distance to it.-Straneers, he
said, were apt to mistake the distance.
| We looked at the Rock along the inter-
vening water. We could get no aid from
| the shores which were at great distance !;
quite out of sight on one hand We sup
posed Of course we should underrate the dis.
lance. So we stretched it literally as we
thought, and guessed two miles, though it
did not lock that distance. You have
made the common mistake, said Mr. Nc
Tear-it is over 90 We could hardly
credit it,-but he told US we should see it
getting to it,-and were going at ten
knots. And over two hours it was-and
such was the deceptive character of the
way that when we thought we were com
ing right upon it-and wanting our friend
Garrison who was asleep below, to have
) sight at it, we went below and told him
, to hurry up and see "Alisa Rock,
proved to the amazement of US both, thai
we were then nearly ten miles from it.
And the little prominence that looked so
) like hay-stack, or hay-cock, when we
deserted it first-grew as we neared it, a
mighty mountain-nine hundred and
eighty feet high,-rising abruptly out Of
the sea, and two miles about the base. Il
, twas naked rock. A little level space
. projected on one side with small house
, on it. We could not conjecture the USE
of q habitation there. The Captain the
steamer said it was the Governors house
! We asked him what Governor could dc
there Take care of the birds, he replied
And he pays the Marquis of Ailsa, The
proprietor, who takes his title from The
Craig, ESQ rent, for his privilege of talk.
ing them. What sort of birds we asked
; him. Sea-fowl Of all sorts, he said
: They inhabit the Craig, and yell may be
see numbers of them. They are quite
] numerous The Marquis has threatened
: prosecution if people fire upon the Craig
t from the vessels They have been in the
u habit of firing to alarm the birds, to SEE
: them fly. He had been himself Cover
+ nor of the Craig, he said some years be
5 fore; and had great sport and some dan
! ger in killing the birds. His way of xii
n ling them was with club-and he told
r US how many thousand, we dare not sa,
# how many, he had killed in single day
t of a famous kind of goose. He had le
0 himself down to quarter of the cliff
g where they haunted, to get the young ant
: eggs; and the old ones attacked him and
/ he taught them with his club, till he wa,
r covered with blood-theirs and his own
y He had good mind lie said, to give then
i one gun, just to let us see them fy, as W,
Q were strangers. As he had been tn.
J. Marquis Governor, be said, he woalc
h venture that he would overlook it in him
n He ordered his boy to bring the musket
! The boy returned and said it was left be
hind at Glasgow Load up the swive
/ then, said the Captain. It will max,
h quite a. flight yell find. Load her o.
5 pretty well.
e The steamer meanwhile kept nearing
b the giant Craig. which was bare rocl
/, from summit 10 the sea and all Of dul
! Ichalky whiteness, occasioned as the Cap
9 tain said by the excrement of the birds :
e We saw caves in the sides of the noun
3 tain and down by the water-the retreats