JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



remember his being out all night on Benachie, when he 

 lived at Auchleven at its northern base. If he had an 

 unusually long journey before him, to some wild or 

 unfrequented region, he used to set out very early in the 

 morning, with bread and cheese in his pockets, his por- 

 table plant-preserving sheets under his arm, his broad 

 bonnet on his head, and his constant staff in his hand. 

 He carried also a bag of oatmeal, which he used to pour 

 out in quantities on any flat stone and make a kind of 

 " crowdie " of, with pure water from the rippling brook 

 the plainest and simplest of fare, but thoroughly substantial 

 and nourishing. He would remain in the open air all 

 that day and the following night, and then return home 

 early next morning, to begin his weaving and make up 

 for lost time. When absent for longer periods, where 

 he had no house to shelter him in solitary spots whither 

 his explorations often led him, he has frequently "slept 

 the furth," * as one of his friends expressed it in local 

 phrase, that is, under the heavens, during the warmer 

 nights of summer. 



The distances walked on foot by our brother botanists 

 may seem to some incredible, but, at that time, a journey 

 that would now be quoted as memorable was thought 

 nothing of, and was not uncommon. When on his travels 

 to the south, Duncan would walk some thirty miles con- 

 tinuously, day after day, with no fatigue whatever. Many 

 of his early friends used to accomplish fifty miles without 

 thinking it anything to boast of. More than once, Charles 

 Black left Whitehouse, and walked over Corennie Forest, 

 down into the valley of the Dee, across the hill road 

 * That is, forth of or outside of a house. 



