“Here the iron coast, harborless for league upon league, opposes a black perpendicular front to the vast green seas, which slowly and unceasingly beneath their veil of fogs roll in, and fall in thunder amidst its pinnacles and caverns.
“At wide intervals the cliffs give way a little, forming narrow coves and havens, so limited that scarce a score of fishing-boats can find safe harborage therein. In almost every such cove may be found a tiny settlement, remote from the world, utterly shut in upon itself save during the brief months of summer, with no ideas but what spring from its people’s daily toil and from the stupendous aspects of surrounding nature.
“Is it strange that to such simple and lonely souls the wild elements become instinct with strange life, and seem to dominate their thoughts and their existence?
“For them the driving mists are filled with apparitions. The gnarled and wind-beaten firs take on strange features in the dusk. Through the ravings of the gale against those towering cliffs comes to their ears a hubbub of articulate voices, mingled with the cries of the baffled sea-birds.
“Men dwelling under such influences are imaginative. If left in ignorance, they grow, of necessity, superstitious. The mouths of these islanders overflow with unearthly tales, nearly all of which may be traced to the workings of some natural force.
“But their faith in these fancies is as unquestioning as our acceptance of the word that the world is round.
“What were variously known to the islanders as ‘The Dogs of the Drift,’ ‘The White Dogs,’ and ‘The Gray Dogs,’ I heard of all over the island.
“As went the tale generally, and ever with bated breath, these beings were a team of gigantic dogs, lean and pale in color, driven furiously by a gaunt woman in flowing garments of white.
“They were said to appear to travellers caught journeying in a storm, and to dash past with shrill howls when the storm was at its highest.
“Never closer did they come than within a stone’s throw; but their coming meant death ere sunset to one or another of those met by the apparition.