160 WOLF-HUNTING. 



time the double-thong curled over his ribs the brute plunged 

 frantically forward, and did more or less damage to the unfor- 

 tunate harness. 



However, rough and hilly as the road was over the Black 

 Mountains, we reached Scaer soon after ten o'clock, without any 

 serious mishap ; and here, tarrying a while to bait our horses, and 

 watch the usual process of frying omelets and broiling cutlets for 

 our dejeuner, Shafto, Keryfan, and I strolled over the new bridge, 

 to take a look at the stream that rushes, seething and gurgling, 

 'neath its pretty arches. To judge from its appearance, now 

 somewhat turbid from the recent rain, a more favourable river for 

 salmon and trout could not be seen between Dunkeld and 

 Inverness. Immediately below Scaer bridge there is a beautiful 

 run ; and, if the reports of its well-stocked condition be true, an 

 expert fisherman would be likely to fill his basket here without 

 much trouble. The river is called the Elle, and falls into the sea 

 at Quimperle, a pretty little town, containing the grave of St. 

 Gurlot, to which the Breton peasants resort for the cure of 

 rheumatism, the arm being thrust into a hole perforated in the 

 tombstone for that purpose. 



The road, via Rosporden to Concarneau, presented no features 

 'of interest along its wild, sterile tract of moor and heathland, 

 beyond occasional memorials of the terrible Chouan struggle 

 which, indicated by wayside crosses, had been carried on so long 

 and so savagely in this district. Within a short distance of this 

 road was perpetrated that atrocious massacre of a party of 

 bishops and priests who, by order of the Revolutionist Govern- 

 ment, were proceeding to Brest, for the purpose of administering 

 the rite of confirmation and consecrating a church in that town. 

 They were dragged from their carriage with a cry resembling the 

 whoop of an owl (this being the party signal of the Chouans, and 

 hence their name), and cruelly butchered on the spot. A granite 

 cross, rudely cut with the words " Siste Viator," arrests the 



