Tke Land of the Hills and the Glens 



lay the rugged peaks of Caithness and Sutherland, and 

 nearer at hand, and standing more to the eastward, was 

 the great bulk of An Teallach, on which ptarmigan nest, 

 and the eagle and raven have their home. Almost at my 

 feet lay Gruinard Bay with a heavy surf from the north 

 breaking on its sandy shores, and here a fleet of herring 

 drifters were busy with the setting of their nets. Just 

 showing above the nearer hills I could make out some of 

 the hills of Skye, with the flat top of MacLeod's Table, 

 rising from Dunvegan, prominent among them. 



Beneath me lay a hill loch on which, their white 

 plumage catching the rays of the sun, were seven swans. 

 One lot of them, three in number, were standing in dozing 

 attitudes, while near the edge of the loch the remainder 

 were feeding on some water weed, propelling themselves 

 powerfully through the water with heads well below the 

 surface and pausing to emerge only for short intervals to 

 draw breath. Careful stalking enabled me to approach the 

 birds to within two hundred yards when, becoming uneasy, 

 and apprehending danger, they one by one rose from the 

 water with much paddling of feet, and on their strong 

 wings made their way to the far end of the loch, a couple 

 of miles distant. The next morning — the moon was near 

 the full at the time — an hour before dawn I visited, together 

 with a companion, the "loch of the swans." 



In the western sky the moon shone clear as we set out, 

 lighting up the dark waters of the sea loch which lay a 

 mile or so to the westward. The ground was held fast 

 in the grip of an intense frost, so that our footsteps re- 

 sounded from its iron-bound surface, and the murmuring 

 of a hill burn running through the glen was borne up to 

 us on the still air. On the higher ground lay a powder- 

 ing of snow, showing the well-marked tracks of fox and 

 mountain hare, and of grouse which Reynard may perhaps 

 have been stalking. Before the first rays of the December 

 dawn had lighted the south-eastern sky we reached the 



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