IN THE HIGHLANDS 157 



whereas the golden eagles were comparatively plentiful. 

 I have known only one other nesting-place of the sea- 

 eagles on this coast, where in a sea-cliff they continued 

 to breed till within comparatively modern times. I 

 gave my dear mother no peace until she had arranged an 

 expedition to the nest; it was just beyond our march, 

 but permission having been got from our neighbour, 

 away we went on pony-back, with an expert rock- 

 climber and ropes, etc. Though the precipice from the 

 pinnacle of Spidean Moirich down to Loch an Doire 

 Chrionaich (Lake of the Withered Grove) at its base 

 cannot be much under two thousand feet of nearly 

 plumb rock, the eagles had fortunately chosen for their 

 eyrie a fairy accessible shelf near the bottom. But, 

 alas ! on our arrival we found we were just a day too late, 

 for a south-country shepherd from the other property, 

 having lately got wind that eagles' eggs had a 

 certain market value, had taken them the previous day. 

 However, a good Caledonian bank-note, if it had Tir nam 

 heann, nan gleann s'nan gaisgach (the land of the 

 mountains, the glens, and the heroes), printed on it, was 

 fairly powerful in those days; and for a pound -note of 

 that description my enemy, Jock Beatie (for I fear I 

 hated him in my little heart), handed over the two big, 

 pure white eggs, and I returned home in a kind of semi- 

 triumph on my Shetland pony's back. Just below the 

 north end of the Fionn Loch, which is but one of the 

 many lochs in that wild stretch of moorland, is Loch an 

 lasgair (the Osprey's Loch). In Gaelic the osprey is 

 called Ailein lasgair (Allan the Fisherman). How well 

 I remember the excitement over the arrival at Poolewe 



