394 JOHN DUNCAN, WEAVER AND BOTANIST. 



He led me first to a quarry of twisted Silurian slate, 

 there largely developed ; for in the valley of the Leochel, 

 we were west of the granite upheaval of Alford and Ben- 

 achie. We then ascended to one of the prehistoric cairns 

 so common in the north. It was circular and some twelve 

 yards in diameter, once surrounded with tall standing 

 stones, some of which still remained, and covered with sloe 

 bushes and vegetation known as "the Captain's Cairn." 

 John told me that the cairn was once high and large, but, 

 with much indignation, that the stones had been removed 

 to build the factor's dikes a not unusual fate for such 

 antiquities during the blind Vandal period of our history, 

 scarcely yet gone by. He gave the usual local explanation 

 of such remains, that some great captain or chief had died 

 in a great battle that took place there. Rising through wet 

 bog and tall broom and whin, which completely hid us 

 from view, John led manfully upwards, though it was hard 

 upon him. He would nevertheless move on alone, evidently 

 believing, to the last, in " a stoot heart to a stey brae," * as 

 he had always done in more things than in hill-climbing. 

 The Grass of Parnassus catching his eye as it grew in the 

 wet places of the hill, he called on me to look at "that 

 bonnie snaw-white floorie ! " in tones of truest appreciation 

 as well as in words of correct description. When shown 

 by me the backward movement of the sensitive stamens of 

 the Rock Rose (Helianthemum vulgare) after the base of the 

 style has been titillated, which is certainly very striking, he 

 exclaimed, in childlike wonder, " Ay, man, ay ! so it does 1 



* A steep brae or hill slope. From the Gaelic, and occurring in 

 many names of places in the Highlands, as the Braes of Lochaber, 

 of Portree, etc. 



