26 TOUR IX SUTHERLANDSHIRE. 



wishing them a good voyage in many a bumper of whisky, 

 with the usual accompaniment of bagpipes and reels ; so that 

 what with their songs, their music, and the beating of their 

 feet, as they danced under the inspiration both of whisky 

 and pipes, there was a tolerable noise kept up till daylight. 

 But mountain travelling, and a feeling that it was impossible 

 and unjust to be angry with the poor fellows, enable'd me 

 soon to sleep as comfortably as if all had been still. 



At daylight, according to appointment, I started with Mr. 

 Dunbar in the boat, but drawn by a small Highland pony 

 whose services we had engaged, for the purpose of getting to 

 the nest of the " Eagle Fisher," as the osprey is sometimes 

 called in Gaelic. At the nearest point of the road to the 

 lake we unshipped the boat, and making traces out of rope, 

 we fastened the pony to it, leaving the under carriage and 

 wheels by the roadside ; we then managed to get the boat to 

 the water's edge, the pony scrambling, in a manner practised 

 only by mountain-bred ponies, over bog and rock, dragging 

 the boat after him, while we did our utmost to keep it from 

 injury, or from getting stuck in the rough ground. 



I was delighted beyond expression at seeing the two 

 ospreys, one of them on the nest and the other soaring above 

 the loch, uttering cries of alarm at our approach. 



The nest was placed in a most curious situation. About a 

 hundred and fifty yards from the shore there rose from the 

 deep water a solitary rock about ten feet high, shaped like a 

 broken sugar-loaf, or truncated cone : on the summit of this 

 was the nest a pile of sticks of very great depth, evidently 

 the accumulation of many breeding seasons, as the osprey 

 returns, year after year, to the same nest. How this heap of 

 sticks withstood the winter gales without being blown at 

 once into the water, puzzled me. In a crevice of the rock 

 was a small tuft or two of green, otherwise it was perfectly 

 bare and steep. 



We launched our little bark, and were soon pulling 

 strongly against a head wind across the loch. The female 

 osprey allowed us to approach within two hundred yards or 

 so, and then leaving her nest, sailed upwards with a circling 

 flight, till she joined her mate high above us. 



Having reached the rock, and with some difficulty ascended 

 to the nest, our disappointment may be imagined when we 

 found it empty. From the old bird having remained on so 

 long, we had made sure of h' riding eggs in it. The nest itself, 



