3 i2 WINTER IN THE NORTH 



trembling. Too many of the fleecy flock so dear to his 

 memory are lost to sight, buried deep under the heaps 

 of gathering snow-wreaths ; and in many a quiet nook 

 and corner of the winding stream the backwater will be 

 choked with submerged corpses. 



Death is never far from the man who is out in a 

 Highland snowstorm, and it is a risk that the sportsman 

 will not lightly encounter. But en revanche there are 

 often, in the dead season of the year, long spells of 

 settled and most exhilarating weather, when the grouse 

 sit wonderfully in the " black frosts," and a vigorous 

 walker may fill a bag satisfactorily. Then, seen in the 

 bright sunlight, the clear summits of the highest hills 

 may exercise an irresistible fascination on him, and 

 he decides for a bold dash at the ptarmigan. If he go 

 by the barometer and sage advice, he may make the 

 expedition tolerably safely. The work will be hard, of 

 course, but scarcely so severe as one might fancy. For 

 by judicious strategy the ascent may be made by the 

 slopes where the snow-sprinkling is comparatively thin, 

 and along ravines whose gravelly and slaty sides offer a 

 comparatively sure footing. And having once sur- 

 mounted the lower zone of perpetual snow, the 

 sportsman will find himself " travelling," as the 

 Scotch say, on natural causeways that have been 

 swept by the winds, and which are roughly paved 

 with what looks like the debris of a stone quarry. 

 Nor should it be so much the sport you look 

 to on those occasions, as the splendour of the sky 

 effects, the grandeur of the scenery, and the romantic 



