IN THE HIGHLANDS 51 



I used sometimes to long to pass the night instead in 

 Uaimh Bhraodaig, a spot where my father and uncles 

 had spent many nights when deer-stalking, and where 

 there was room for two or three fellows to lie down close 

 together. Uaimh is Gaelic for " cave," but it was 

 hardly a cave : it was only a sort of hole under a gigantic 

 fragment of rock in the wildest cairn I ever saw, with, 

 perhaps, the exception of Carn nan Uaimhag, at the 

 back of Beinn Airidh Charr. I shall give my uncle's 

 description of it: 



" When we went to the hill for deer, expecting to be 

 home at night, after an early breakfast, we never dreamt 

 of taking anything but a heel of cheese from the dairy 

 with some thick barley scone, a favourite bread down- 

 stairs, and handy as never crumbling in one's pocket. 

 But it happened to me when I came on deer late at 

 night, as I have often done, I could not get home till 

 next day. Once night fell on me when alone ten miles 

 from home with a stag and hind that I had not finished 

 gralloching ere it was so dark that I could hardly see 

 my way to a large stone called Uaimh Bhraodaig, which 

 gave tolerable protection to two or three people in need 

 from the rain and wind in those hills. I managed, 

 however, and on my way startled a foolish old grouse, 

 who, not caring a straw for me, perched on a great stone 

 so nicely between me and the evening star that he got 

 a little round hole from my rifle that qualified him for 

 supping with me, when skinned hot and made into a 

 spatch-cock that needed no sauce to be enjoyed ex- 

 tremely, the cheese and scone having disappeared by 

 midday . My friend and I j ust reached Uaimh Bhraodaig 



