Memories of Highland Stalkers 



cairngorm stone of somewhat exceptional size while out on 

 the high hills, and though the stalker rarely allowed his 

 feelings to become evident, in this instance he was con- 

 strained to remark that I had indeed discovered "a brave 

 stone." 



Another stalker — he is now an old man and on the 

 retired list — lived in the same wild glen, and many a 

 story had he, too, to tell of the hills. Full of quaint say- 

 ings was this veteran. I remember how on one occasion 

 he stated, while remarking on the weather which had been 

 experienced during that season, how that "at times the sun 

 would gain the masterpiece, but that then the wind would 

 get up, and the mist would come down, and the atmosphere 

 would become most ungenial." Talking of the expeditions 

 of a certain ornithologist, he once remarked of the person in 

 question that "at times fine weather would accompany him " 

 — an expression which sounded with great charm when 

 spoken by this old hillman in his own characteristic 

 way. 



In a lonely bothy, in the very heart of Scotland and of 

 the hill country, there .formerly lived an old watcher who 

 had the true charm of the hillman, and whose fund of 

 reminiscences, told in his own inimitable way, seemed in- 

 capable of being exhausted. Now this veteran has 

 retired — the hill was getting too steep for him, he simply 

 remarked — and the bothy is inhabited by one of a younger 

 generation. His predecessor took an interest in the birds 

 which had their homes on the hills near his solitary abode. 

 On fine July days he would climb to the very highest tops, 

 and would sit quietly watching the snow buntings enter- 

 ing and leaving their homes amongst the rough granite 

 "scree," or, as he put it, "dancing on the hill in the sun- 

 light." 



In the bothy field mice live, and my old friend used to 

 spend the evenings in taming his small companions. After 

 a time the mice lost their fear of him, and even fed on 



63 



