150 THE AMATEUR TRAMP IN SCOTLAND 



as we live, winging his flight towards the loch, and 

 sharp-set for his breakfast ; and the sight is far rarer 

 than it should be, now that he is so ruthlessly shot 

 down by the keepers, while fancy prices are given for 

 his eggs. It may be true that the eagle's moral quali- 

 ties have been absurdly idealised by the poets. He is a 

 fierce and truculent savage, and, like all savages, a 

 glutton to boot ; and he assuredly shows to anything 

 but advantage when, after having gorged himself on a 

 heavy meal, he crumples up into a shapeless ball of 

 feathers, resigning himself to the slow labours of diges- 

 tion. But when you come across him of a glorious 

 morning like this, soaring in the strength of his mag- 

 nificent pinions, he is as the warlike Osmanli amidst 

 the joys of battle to the same individual in peace-time 

 in the sensuous seclusion of his harem. 



Leaving him behind, and his heathery hunting- 

 grounds, you cross the ridge and clear the plateau to 

 descend the watershed on the other side. You may 

 safely leave the road if you please, for the road, that 

 has been most scientifically engineered, tediously de- 

 scends by easy gradients, losing itself and alternately 

 reappearing among the copsewood. Still, you may be 

 the better of a guide ; and here you have one, 

 vociferous indeed, yet not importunate. In these dark 

 peat-bogs, under coverings of emerald duckweed, are 

 the troubled sources of the translucent stream which 

 waters the pastures of the strath below you. But 

 before it runs so smooth and shallow, stringing a 

 succession of silvery lochs on its meandering course, it 



