the land in order to lead to our destination.  A good wind was carried as far as Loch Ryan, when it slowly died away and became flat calm.  One of my friends and myself were walking the deck together, when he excitedly observed, “What is that on our starboard beam; is it a reef?” I assured him there were no shoals in the vicinity of the yacht; and I took up the field-glasses, and saw quite plainly that it was a bottle-nosed whale.  It soon began to move and send masses of water into the air.  The calm continued, and some anxiety was felt lest the leviathan should playfully come towards us and test its power of lifting.  It passed close to where we lay, and then shaped a course towards the opposite shore.  Naturally our interest was excited, and as a favourable breeze sprang up and gradually strengthened we were able to follow at a discreet distance from the tail of the sea disturber.  It would have taken the vessel out of our way to have followed it far, so a course was set for Campbeltown, and the monster was soon lost to view.  Navigation was made intricate by a large fleet of fishing boats beating up towards the playground of the fish they sought to catch.  The day following our arrival at Campbeltown this fleet re-entered the port, their crews stricken with a conviction that they had encountered the much-spoken-of sea-monster.  Their tales varied only in degree, but their convictions were similar, and as they unfolded with touching solemnity the story of peril, the little town became the centre of wild, fluttering pulses.  It was a conflict between pride of race and sanctified horror, for had not their townsmen looked into the very jaws of death?  One imaginative gentleman made a statement that was creepy in his version of a gallant fight against the demoniac foe.  The monster is said to have raised itself high out of the water, and opened its jaws, which exposed to view a vast space, and suggested that the intention was to receive, if not a few of the boats, certainly a multitude of the people who manned them.  One craft came gliding along, and the skipper promptly picked up an oar, and put it into the “serpent’s” mouth, whereupon the oar was as promptly snapped asunder; and the skilful mariner sailed his craft gallantly out of harm’s way while the cause of all the commotion went prancing about the ocean in defiance of the vast flotilla which is said at the same time to have occupied its attention.  It would be impossible to give more than a summary of all the things that were said to have been done during this trying episode; and all that need be said now is that the men were stricken with awe.  They remained in port for several days in the belief that their enemy was still on the rampage outside.  Their deliverance had been miraculous; and no doubt much thanksgiving, and much petitioning for divine interposition, so that this visitor from a sinister world might be spirited away to some other locality, held their attention during the days that were spent