The resort to Isle Maree for the cure of lunacy was continued until a very recent date, though no longer prefaced by the sacrifice of a bull. There was an instance in 1856, when a young woman was brought to the island from Easter Ross; she was afterwards placed in the Inverness Asylum. A prior case was reported in the _Inverness Courier_ of 4th November 1852. I am assured on good authority that lunatics are still taken to the island to be cured, but these expeditions are now kept strictly secret. Our next chapter will be devoted to a discussion of these superstitions, mostly from the pen of Dr Arthur Mitchell, chairman of the Lunacy Commission of Scotland. His full description of Isle Maree will give the reader a good idea of the subject generally. Her Majesty the Queen has herself written an excellent account of the island in "More leaves from the Journal of a Life in the Highlands," to which the reader is referred. The following is Dr Mitchell's description, extracted from his valuable paper "On various Superstitions in the north-west Highlands and Islands of Scotland, especially in relation to Lunacy," printed in Vol. IV. of the proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Dr Mitchell, it will be seen, clears up in a most satisfactory manner the question of the derivation of the name Maree:-- "Eilean Maree, or Innis Maree, is a small low island, with clean gravelly shores, half-way down the loch, not more than a quarter of a mile in its greatest diameter. "On its highest part there is an enclosure, whose outline is an irregular oval (ninety by one hundred and twenty feet). The wall, which is not more than two feet high, is now covered with earth and moss. Pennant, however, describes it as a 'stone dyke, with a regular narrow entrance.' In the centre of this enclosure there are the remains of a small chapel; but so complete is the ruin, that it is not possible to determine the style of architecture. Round about the chapel are fifty or sixty graves, generally covered by a flat undressed stone, with rude blocks at the head and feet. Many of these graves are recent. One, indeed, is quite fresh,--the burial having taken place but a week before my visit. Several of the older ones are said to contain the bodies of the Sasunnach artizans who, in the seventeenth century, worked at the iron furnaces of Poolewe. With two exceptions there are no cuttings, carvings, or inscriptions of any kind on any of the tombstones. These two have distinct and well-formed incised crosses on them (_see illustration_). The stones on which these occur have never been dressed or even squared. They are flat, and lie beside each other, nearly end to end, and about east and west. "The celebrated well, whose waters are of such magic power, is near the shore. We found it dry, and full of last year's leaves. It is a built well, and the flat stone which serves for a cover we found lying on the bank.