202 LAGOPLS CINEREUS. 



down I saw two does, and as I approached the stream ah'eady 

 mentioned was somewhat alarmed by a succession of short 

 brays or grunts, which increased in loudness and frequency, so 

 as at length to become really frightful. It was now quite dark, 

 so that I could see nothing distinctly at the distance of twenty 

 yards ; and whether the sounds proceeded from a rambling 

 stag, or a water kelpie, I haye neyer been able to learn. Cross- 

 ing the stream, and ascending a low" ridge, I fell in with a kind 

 of footpath, which I followed, until I arriyed oyer a deep glen, 

 which I recognised. About a mile farther, finding that I was 

 too high, I w^ith difficulty descended the side of the glen about 

 a quarter of a mile, until I came upon another footpath much 

 more distinct than the upper, which led me to the place where 

 I had seen the mountain-ash, poplar, and birch, by the stream. 

 At length, after walking two hours in darkness, I gained the 

 valley of the Dee, when the moon began to throw an obscure 

 ligfht over the shoulder of a hill, and I forded the river without 

 accident, and reached the inn at half-past nine. Now, although 

 after all my labour, I had only obtained half a dozen plants 

 that were new" to me, and observed the flight of a flock of 

 Ptarmigans, I conceived myself amply recompensed. 



Two nights after this, having ascended Glen Dee in the 

 afternoon, I found myself at sunset in a valley bounded by very 

 lofty and rugged mountains, and terminating on the side of a 

 vast mass towering above the rest. Before I reached the head 

 of this magnificent but desolate valley, night fell, and I was 

 left to grope my way in the dark, among blocks of granite, by 

 the side of one of the sources of the Dee, ten miles at least from 

 human habitation, and with no better cheer in my w^allet than 

 a quarter of a cake of barley and a few crumbs of cheese which 

 a shepherd had given me. Before I resolved to halt for the 

 night, I had unfortunately proceeded so far up the glen that I 

 had left behind me the region of heath, so that I could not 

 procure enough for a bed. Pulling some grass and moss, how- 

 ever, I spread it in a sheltered place, and, after some time 

 succeeded in falling into a sort of slumber. About midnight 

 I looked up on the moon and stars that were at times covered 

 by the masses of vapour that rolled along the summits of the 



