Botanical Excursions hiio the Highlands 351 



niountairv- ranges of Scotland. My academical duties neces- 

 sarily detain me in Iklinburgh till the close of the sumnwr 

 session at the end of July ; but the impatient zeal of some 

 of my most elastic friends could not be compressed so long this 

 year, and, exploding during the summer heat, carried them to 

 Forfar on the 12th of July. A great additional interest has 

 been given to the excursion oi this j>arty, by the barometrical 

 observations of my excellent, intelligent, and quietly persever- 

 ing friend Mr Hewett Watson. 



After a hasty glance at the neighbourhood of Forfar, they 

 proceeded to Kirkton, Clova, spending five days in that neigh- 

 bourhood. The weather among the mountains was excessively 

 rainy and foggy, and it sometimes blew so violently, that they 

 felt it dangerous to venture among unknown precipices. Se- 

 veral attempts were made to explore new ground, in which 

 they lost their way and each other, and, upon one occasion, 

 after walking for hours, they met unconsciously near the spot 

 from which they had set out. They therefore generally con- 

 tented themselves with gathering the rare plants from the al- 

 ready known stations, and then proceeding by the same route 

 as last year, along the White Water to its source, and through 

 Glen Callader, reached Castletown of Braemar. From this 

 they visited the mountains around ; but here also the in- 

 fluence of their evil stars chased them, chilled them with a 

 snow shower on Lochnagar, pelted them with rain on Ben-na- 

 buird, and buried them in the mists of Ben- A von. No wonder 

 if such treatment cooled their zeal. The party broke up here: 

 three crossed Cairngorum and Ben-na-muic-dui to Aviemore 

 and Inverness ; the others went off in various directions, leaving 

 Mr Watson alone to continue his botanico- barometrical obser- 

 vations. He also subsequently proceeded to Inverness, and 

 thence along the coasts of Caithness and the north shore of Scot- 

 land as far as Erriboll, in spite of continued rain and dense fog; 

 but finding himself an object of extreme suspicion, from having 

 come from a country infected with cholera, he delicately ab- 

 stained from presenting his letters of introduction, and, leaving 

 the country, returned to Edinburgh, by Inverness, the Caledo- 

 nian Canal, Glencoe, Killin, and Stirling. 



The party with which I had the pleasure to be accompanied. 



