WINTER IN THE NORTH 311 



in these circumstances. Up he rises from among the 

 rocks on powerful wing, his jetty plumage glistening in 

 the sunbeams, skimming the feathering firs with the 

 sweeping pinions that propel him like a rocket shot 

 from a mortar. Clean missed in a flurry by the first 

 gun cleverly killed by the second ; and borne ahead 

 for fifty yards or so by his acquired velocity, you hear 

 him crashing through the branches in the depths, and 

 can mark his course by the showers of ice-dust. 



In the dark inclement days of the winter, the moors 

 and forests are left very much to their native denizens. 

 Even the keepers and gillies, when not under surveil- 

 lance, are inclined to fight shy of the upper hills ; and 

 the shepherds, who have to face much fearful weather, 

 strive to keep their flocks in the more sheltered valleys. 

 For there is something appalling in a Highland snow- 

 storm, when the day is darkened with feathering 

 snow-flakes and the air laden with icy drift ; when the 

 winds howl down the passes and shriek in the wildest 

 fury as they are caught in the glens and the corries ; 

 and when snow-slips and small avalanches are happening 

 everywhere, engulfing each living thing that comes 

 across the path of their descents. Then fox and wild 

 cat take refuge in their earths in the recesses of the 

 cairns, howling and moaning with cold and hunger ; 

 and the winged game cower together in the lee of the 

 braes, or scrape for a precarious subsistence on the more 

 exposed banks that have been laid bare by the storm. 

 When the snowfall is suspended and the " lift has 

 cleared," the shepherd must go abroad in fear and 



