I.— HOW WE SPENT THE 30th JULY 1S79 IN THE WILDS 

 OF KILMONIVAIG AND NORTH-WEST BADENOGH. 



By Mr SYMINGTON GRIEVE. 



{Ecad Oct. 20, 1881.) 



TF you can do with climbing and plenty hard walking, and wish 

 ■^ to spend a pleasant holiday among the mountains, our advice 

 is — visit Moy Farm. You reach it by taking the train to Kingussie 

 on the Highland railway, and thence the Fort William coach, which 

 passes Moy, and always waits a few minutes to change horses and 

 let the passengers have some refreshment. We have made this 

 place our headquarters more than once when away for a holiday. 

 But we shall only write of one memorable day's outing, when the 

 writer had with him two companions. 



We took the coach as it was going from Fort William to Kin- 

 gussie, and about nine o'clock in the morning were set down at the 

 entrance to Aberairder Glen. The weather was magnificent ; the 

 scenery almost unequalled for beauty. The hum of insects and the 

 song of birds, the sound of the rippling waters breaking against the 

 shores of Loch Laggan, and the tumultuous roar of mountain tor- 

 rents, betokened that all nature was revelling in the suusliine of 

 another day. No wonder that we felt able for any amount of 

 fatigue when we had such surroundings — especially when braced 

 by the exhilarating mountain air of Badenoch. The rugged path 

 took us up past Aberairder Farm, and into the glen among woods 

 of Birch, Oak, and Hazel. The branches of the trees hung with 

 festoons of beautiful Mosses, one of the most attractive being Ayiti- 

 trichia curtipendula, Brid., which was in fine fructification ; while 

 under foot were dense cushions of Racomitrium heterostichum and 

 R. lanuginosum, Brid., variegated here and there with patches of 

 Iceland and Reindeer Moss [Getraria islandlca and Gladonia rangi- 

 ferlna). And occasionally we came across the cone-shaped heaps 

 of dried and broken twigs that marked the formicarias of the 

 wood ant [Formica rufa). These little insects, always busy, may 

 sometimes prove of use to the naturalist if he wishes to prepare 

 the skeleton of a bird, fish, or any small animal. He has only to 

 leave the dead body on one of these ant-hills, and he will find his 



