LOCH OF THE EAGLE-FISHER. 59 



young bird and an uuhatched egg, both of which he brought 

 safely to laud. He remained on the spot to try to shoot one 

 of the old birds, while I fished for an hour down a stream 

 that ran from the loch towards the inn. I think it was the 

 most rugged and rocky that I ever threw a ny on, but 

 though it was difficult to imagine \\here trout could lie in it, 

 1 managed to half till my basket with very nice-looking fish. 

 After resting ourselves for an hour or so, we again left the 

 inn to look for another osprey's nest in the contrary direction. 

 We could get but very vague information as to the exact 

 point of the compass we had to make for ; one person telling 

 us that the lake was only a mile and a bit off; another that 

 it was two miles and a bit, and so on. However, it was only 

 about half-past five, and, with the long summer's evening 

 before us, we cared little where the lake was, as long as we 

 could find it at all. There were a few scattered houses along 

 the banks of the sea loch at the end of which Khiconnich is 

 situated, and we made sundry inquiries at these respecting 

 the lake, but got such very different answers from each 

 person, that we were almost giving it up in despair; I should 

 not say that ive " inquired," as the whole talking was in 

 Gaelic, and therefore carried on by Uunbar. At last we met 

 with an old woman, who told him that there was a loch some 

 two miles off', which had always gone by the name of the 

 Loch of the Fishing Eagle ; her Gaelic name for it being 

 " Loch n' allan-yasker." I probably write the Gaelic name 

 incorrectly, but that was as near as I could make out what 

 the name sounded like ; Dunbar interpreted it to me as 

 meaning literally, the " Loch of the Eagle-fisher." 



This revived our spirits, and we set our shoulders to the 

 hill again with fresh confidence, and a steep, rough hill it 

 was. We struck into the country in a north-west direction, 

 keeping separate heights, in order to have a better chance of 

 finding the lake. Having passed several lochs without 

 observing the object of our search, I began almost to despair, 

 and to think that we must have mistaken the whole matter 

 the more so, as from the aspect of the rocks and the feel of 

 the air from the north, I was confident that the ocean must 

 be at no great distance from us ; and, indeed, that it must be 

 washing the other side of the very next range of rocks to 

 that on which we were. There is'a certain look arid feel of 

 the atmosphere when approaching the sea, which is quite un- 

 mistakeable. We had already walked an hour and a half 



