56 THE PLANTS OF THE GRAMPIANS. 
instrument and its owner safely lodged at a Highland inn, | 
from whence he can conveniently examine the neighbouring : 
hills. His first care will be to find or hammer a nail in the ~ 
wall of his bed-room, whereon to suspend the Sympiesometer, 
while out of use. A second nail on the outside of the win- - 
dow will likewise be found useful, that the indications ofthe - 
instrument may be observed at the temperature of the exter- _ 
nal air. This little preparation completed, the “ lassie” who — 
officiates in capacity of chambermaid needs to be most so- - 
lemnly enjoined on no account to touch the instrument : 
Should she happen not to be overdone with work at the time, — 
this strong injunction of course arouses an equally strong ` 
inclination to look into the box, for which so much of affec- 
tionate solicitude is exhibited. I have usually suspended 
the instrument open, that the box may be seen to contain " 
only breakable glass tubes, and hence more willingly be - 
avoided. Besides this, an intimation of the cost of such - 
machines, and a broad hint that any lassie who should be ai 
extremely unfortunate as to break one of them, would be | 
certain never to be married, will prove some protection. - 
Such precautions are not always unnecessary. A friend of ` 
mine had carried a barometer to one of the Highland inns — 
and strictly enjoined the chambermaid not to touch it—0n^ ` 
returning to his room, a few hours afterwards, he found the — 
tube broken and the mercury gliding about the floor. He had à 
omitted the hint about the matrimonial consequences of such : 
a disaster; a belief prevalent, indeed, throughout Scotland, : 
so far as relates to the fracture of glass. There is no acc - 
dental misfortune so reluctantly confessed by a Scottish ` 
maiden, as breaking of a looking-glass, 
Before starting for the ascent of a mountain, the tempera- | 
ture of the air and instrument, and the pressure of the atmo ' 
sphere, as indicated by the scale of fathoms on the instrument; 5 
were carefully observed in the shade, and a written note made ` 
of the particulars. While ascending, I set down, in a colum? I 
in my note-book, the names of all plants of higher ground ` 
than the starting place, in the order in which they were first 3 
d 
