It seemed on each day to keep about us, and as we were always
then rowing, we were inclined to think it perhaps might be attracted
by the measured sound of the oars. Its only exit in this direction to
the north was by the narrow Strait of Kylerhea, dividing Skye from the
mainland, and only a third of a mile wide, and we left our boat,
wondering whether this strange creature had gone that way or turned
back again to the south. We have only to add to this narrative of what
we saw ourselves, the following instances of its being seen by other
people, of the correctness of which we have no doubt. The ferrymen on
each side of Kylerhea saw it pass rapidly through on the evening of
the 21st, and heard the rush of the water; they were surprised, and
thought it might be a shoal of porpoises, but could not comprehend
their going so quickly.
Finlay McRae, of Bundaloch, in the parish of Kintail, was within the
mouth of Lochourn on the 21st, with other men in his boat, and saw the
creature at about the distance of one hundred and fifty yards. Two
days after we saw it, Alexander Macmillan, boat-builder at Dornie, was
fishing in a boat in the entrance of Lochduich, half-way between
Druidag and Castledonan, when he saw the animal, near enough to hear
the noise, and see the ripple it made in rushing along in the sea. He
says that what seemed its head was followed by four or more lumps, or
"half-rounds," as he calls them, and that they sometimes rose and
sometimes sank altogether. He estimated its length at not less than
between sixty and eighty feet. He saw it also on two subsequent days
in Lochduich. On all these occasions his brother, Farquhar, was with
him in the boat, and they were both much alarmed, and pulled to the
shore in great haste.
A lady at Duisdale, in Skye, a place overlooking the part of the Sound
which is opposite the opening of Lochourn, said that she was looking
out with a glass when she saw a strange object on the sea, which
appeared like eight seals in a row. This was just about the time that
we saw it. We were also informed that about the same time it was seen
from the island of Eigg, between Eigg and the mainland, about twenty
miles to the south-west of the opening of Lochourn. We have not
permission to mention the names in these two last instances.
JOHN MCRAE.
DAVID TWOPENY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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