74 CAM CHREAG AND BEINN DOIREANN. 



Cam Chreag) and having various knobs of almost similar height, 

 of which we were able, only after traversing both sides of the 

 angle, to determine that the farthest away point was the true 

 summit. But, were we not gloriously repaid for our toil? A 

 waste of towering peaks, 



" Spread like a sea that heaves without a sound," 



the billows of which changed and varied as infinitely as ever did 

 those of ocean ! How the light played about them, bringing out 

 patches of intensest green here and there ! And the shadows hid 

 in their hollows, creeping out now and then like ghosts risen too 

 soon ! And as the sun sank lower, how the soft purple haze fell 

 round them like a web of gossamer, till, in the " golden lightning " 

 of his last glances, they stood as if with veiled faces — a throng of 

 Titan vestals ! 



It seemed as if all the mountains in Scotland must be gathered 

 within reach of our vision. Away southward, Ben Lomond and 

 Ben Arthur, attended by the picturesque train of the alpine peaks 

 of Arrochar, seemed strangely familiar among the host of new 

 acquaintances; nearer, the twin peaks of Beinn Mohr and 

 Stobinnain flung a rugged chain westward to meet Beinn Laoigh, 

 and the cairned summit of Ben Cruachan lifted itself full in the 

 face of the setting sun. The Shepherd of Etive kept watch over 

 his flocks further north, with Ben Nevis almost peering over his 

 shoulder, while Ben Macdhui, the Cairngorms, Schiehallion, and 

 Lawers seemed almost within reach of our voices. In all our 

 wanderings, since we lost sight of the shepherd and his dogs just 

 beyond Tyndrum, we had not met a single human being, and in 

 all the range of our vision there was no sign of human habitation ; 

 the birds even seemed to observe the sacredness of those mountain 

 silences, and the night-hued moths that flitted duskily about our 

 path were part of them. 



Our descent was made by long, pleasant, grassy slopes that 

 sweep the southern side of the hill, and our sense of vision was 

 almost overpowered by the glorious panorama of many-pinnacled 

 hills and many-fountained valleys from which the gold and crimson 

 tide of sunset had not yet ebbed, when, after a tun hours' tramp, 

 we again reached level ground. 



