84 FOOTNOTES FROM 



beautiful Alpine plants, it grows in greater abundance, 

 I believe, than in any other spot in the Highlands. It 

 occupies the whole ridge of rugged and splintered rocks, 

 marked by the tear and wear of elemental wars during 

 countless ages, which runs along the summit of the hill. 

 The surface of these rocks is covered with masses of 

 sharp abraded stones, interspersed with meagre tufts of 

 grass and moss ; and among these the saffron Solorina 

 luxuriates in large patches. With what delight have I 

 seen this beautiful lichen, beaming out on me from its 

 dreary and desolate home, in the blustering days of early 

 April, when the snow was falling thick around, and the 

 howling wind sweeping by with unobstructed keenness ! 

 With fingers almost benumbed with the cold, I have 

 picked it up to admire its beauty a beauty, such is the 

 arrogant idea which man entertains of his own importance 

 in the world which seems utterly thrown away in a 

 spot where human foot and human eye rarely if ever 

 rest. How often among those wildly desolate and 

 pathless solitudes, where one may wander for whole days 

 without catching a glimpse of a single living thing, save 

 perhaps some raven on its way to its nest, leaving 

 behind it the blue sky without speck or cloud, or a 

 ptarmigan scarcely distinguishable from the grey rocks 

 around, winging its slow wheeling flight to the neigh- 

 bouring hills, and uttering its soft clucking cry ; or 

 when standing on some lofty storm-riven summit, cut off 

 from the rest of creation, by the howling mists that come 

 writhing up from the dark abysses on every side, and as 

 lone as a shipwrecked mariner on some desolate island 

 in the sea, thousands of miles from any shore ; how 



