204 LAGOPUS CINEUEUS. 



migans, and at length, by following a ravine, entered one of 

 the valleys of the Spey, near the mouth of which I saw a 

 Water Ouzel. It was not until noon that I reached a hut, in 

 which I procured some milk. In the evening, at Kingussie, 

 I examined the ample store of plants that I had collected in 

 crossing the Grampians, and refreshed myself with a long sleep 

 in a more comfortable bed than one of granite slabs with a 

 little grass and heather spread over them. 



It is delightful to wander far away from the haunts, and even 

 the solitary huts of men, and ascending the steep mountain, seat 

 one's self on the ruinous cairn that crowns its summit, where, 

 amid the grey stones, the Ptarmigan gleans its alpine food. 

 There, communing with his own heart, in the wilderness, the 

 lover of nature cannot fail to look up to nature's God. I be- 

 lieve it in fact impossible, in such a situation, on the height 

 of Ben-na-muic-dui or Ben Nevis, for example, not to be sen- 

 sible, not merely of the existence, but also of the presence of a 

 Divinity. In that sacred temple, of which the everlasting hills 

 are the pillars, and the blue vault of heaven the dome, he must 

 be a fiend indeed who could harbour an unholy thought. But, 

 to know himself, one must go there alone. Accompanied by 

 his fellows, he may see all of external nature that he could see 

 in solitude, but the hidden things of his own heart will not be 

 brought to light. To me the ascent of a lofty mountain has 

 always induced a frame of mind similar to that inspired by 

 entering a temple ; and I cannot but look upon it as a gross 

 profanation to enact in the midst of the sublimities of creation 

 a convivial scene, such as is usually got up by parties from our 

 laro^e towns, who seem to have no higher aim in climbing to 

 the top of Benlomond or Benledi than to feast there upon 

 cold chicken and " mountain dew,"" and toss as many stones as 

 they can find over the precipices. 



I have scarcely ever visited the summit of any of those 

 mountains without meeting with a covey or a pack of Grey Ptar- 

 migans. These birds gather into large flocks at an earlier 

 period than the brown species ; even by the end of July. 

 From the beginning of spring to the close of autumn, they reside 

 on the summits or rocky slopes of the hills, seldom or never 



